Man in Garden

Man in Garden acrylic on canvas 16 x 12 x 0.5" released: 4/23/2018 [not available]
Man in Garden
acrylic on canvas
16 x 12 x 0.5″
released: 4/23/2018
[not available]

The man in the garden is is tending to an assortment of carnivourous plants in a mini-bog. He trims the decayed traps of White Pitcher plant, Sarracenia Rubra, Purpurea, Cape Sundew, and Drosera Intermedia. In the nearby pots we see Datil, Long Chili, and Clown Peppers. In the center, a Thai Basil plant has flowered and attracted a Common Buckeye Butterfly. A Bluejay looks on from the birdbath while a Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovers at a feeder overhead. Blanket Flowers from the garden area have propagated into a meadow of wildflowers and Blackberry Vines.

This painting is modeled from a photo of a real place where I lived. All of the living things in the painting were observed in the real-life yard when I lived there. The first week I was there, I discovered domestic rabbits had been living feral on the unkept property. I left most of the yard unmowed so they could hide in the grass and share the wild blackberries. I remember Summer days picking berries with the bunnies and then making fresh cobbler with my wife Cole.
Not long after we planted that Turkey Fig tree on the little hill, a small Gopher Tortoise showed up and dug a new burrow directly under its branches. The lure of figs also attracted Cardinals and other birds. Colorful wildlife like the Rainbow Scarab beetle, Anole lizard, and Scarlette King snake were known to hang about as well.

Original Nature Paintings