The most curious thing happened while I was painting in the garden today…
I kept thinking about the Allegory of Spring by Sandro Botticelli.
I collected a wonderful smattering of sun torched and fresh flowers from my garden.
I ate big crisp succulent, sweetest of sweet, grapes.
I looked upon our sort of second spring in my desert place with great joy.
Where desert meets forest.
And I thought…
About Primavera.
I always love this Botticelli piece.
The thought of it immediately sent me to my little library of books.
And somehow, quite naturally, my hands began tucking petals into the piece.
As I watched it come to life.
That sort of moment is sure to inspire a beautiful afternoon of painting in the garden.
From stem to petal to color.
From breeze to bliss.
I stepped in.
If only for one fragile moment.
In I went.
I tossed petals about quite decadently.
Listening to the hauntingly beautiful sound of violins.
Then piano.
Then symphony.
And there I was…
For a moment in time.
Transported.
In that perfect way that a collision of inspiration, imagery and imagination can take you away.
Swirled right up in golden afternoon sun and a cool breeze.
Fluttered about like a butterfly.
Back in time.
1482.
Imagine that date?
And then, somehow I managed to grab my camera and come back.
Just in time to share it with you.
How about that?
🙂
I suppose one can never truly know what happens when art and petal collide?
I was overjoyed to be standing right in that space…
Where a wave of creative consciousness swooped me up.
A perfect afternoon voyage.
Now I sip hot tea with almond milk and type away.
Excited to go to sleep and see if I can step back into my art book.
Loveliest weather here.
The shift, the dance of summer to autumn is definitely in the flirtation stages.
Oh how wonderful to see it happening.
Brings us a taste of spring in mid September, in these southwestern lands.
Lovely day indeed.
What's happening in your neck of the woods?
Do tell.
Love, V
This post reads like a dance; you smiling and twirling, eating grapes, arranging blooms and painting–great visuals. 🖤
New York City is beginning to cool down. The leaves of my wee urban garden are no longer sizzling–my Montauk daisy is budding, and shall bloom soon. I’m looking around the living room… mentally shifting things around to make space for the green babies that most come into the house when winter starts waving our way.
And, of course, getting ready for Halloween. 😉
This is absolutely stunning. All of it – the prose, the petals, the painting. I fancy myself there too. It’s so easy to step into.
p.s. But do you know what really struck me? The deep blue of the table peeking out from underneath the arrangement. It’s got to be the perfect shade of midnight!!!
Love the artist you used for this post. You did such a beautiful job with the inspirational added flowers. I have just noticed that I benefit from your blogs in a way where I enjoy the little things more in life. Thank you for sharing your endeavors – I feel it spreads happiness to your reader’s lives. 🙂
Kind Regards,
Susan
Oh! And Utah’s days are getting cooler, the nights chillier. Days have been perfect – not too hot, not too cold with a slight breeze. Today we had a thunder storm which left the air crisp and earthy.
Such beautiful pictures! Your collection of fruits and flowers could also work as a Horn of Plenty of sorts. That would fit with the season 🙂
Ah, Botticelli…one of my favorites. In fact, I have a white, marble Venus in a half-shell sculpture on my desk. She’s lovely and I look at her beautiful, serene face and graceful form every day. There’s something just breathtaking and magical about this artists works, and you adding fragrant and colorful petals to his art makes it even more so. It’s a perfect touch.
What is up in my neck of the woods you ask? Last weekend I went to a Steampunk Ball. This weekend I’m going to a Great Gatsby 1920’s party at an art gallery/shop. I’ve also made a fun wooden GARDEN sign for my place and hung it from my arbor. There are fun retro-lights framing it right now, but eventually my Don Juan roses will droop all over it, which you know I can’t wait to see.
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I love the way you think and your ability to articulate your thoughts through writing and visuals. Such a gift. We can’t all be artists, but we can all bear the gift of appreciation and wonder. Thanks for sharing your gifts, Vanessa.
What a beautiful beautiful post!!
That is one of my most favorite things in the world…to be transported by art and imagination! And you described that moment so beautifully <3 Thank you so much for being you!
It has cooled way down in the evenings and mornings here in western Massachusetts. Today is a beautiful day! Not a cloud in the sky! And when I look out the window, I can see the changing leaves! How exciting!
This is all so lovely Vanessa!!! I am entranced by the way these already fabulous Botticelli art seems to come to life. Yes, to take a step in and to be a part of these beautiful ladies world would be fascinating! 😉
Each day I am rearranging and deciding on fall decor as I dream about are cooler days ahead!<3
Beauuutiful! I’ve seen the original, in Florence. It’s huuge. I’d planned to go there again this summer but couldn’t, although I did make it to Italy 🙂 🙂 This is quite inspiring. Perhaps you could give other things to people in other paintings?
That is how I feel whenever I visit your corner of blogland. Transported. I walk down your garden paths and smell your roses and visit with Matty and Miles. It is a wonderful feeling, indeed.
love & blessings
~*~
ps…hugs & kisses to Matty & Miles
Such a beautiful post! Here in the sky island of the San Bernardino mountains of So Cal it’s finally raining! I know you got some rain earlier, but that storm missed us. Now, I’m going to indulge and go back and look at your beautiful post again…
Blessings,
Victoria
Lovely – the prose, the flowers, and petals, the luscious art. I am inspired by your art . It is shifting the way I look at things and how I display the things I love. Thank you
Oh I could just sit and look at Botticelli paintings all the day long! And I love your scattered flower magic around this!! : )
Sun-torched flowers…a masterpiece of artwork and flowers mingled together…a golden afternoon…what poetic bliss!
Have you read ‘Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’ by Suzanna Clarke? The BBC has made it into a movie/series and it is now available on DVD…all 406 minutes of the series full of deep, dark, mysterious, ancient, believable fairy magic which is set in London, England during 1800 to 1816 where two English magicians awaken the Raven King. Suzanna Clarke weaves a web of the deepest type of Fairie Magic including a gentleman with ‘thistle-down hair’ being the ancient fairy who tries to beat the two English magicians at their own game. Intriguing and well worth the mysterious read. It will cause you to look into your mirrors at midnight to see if you can walk the ancient Fairie Roads into enchanted ballrooms where the dancing never stops. Available at Walmart as I type this.
XOXO my fairy friend!
Miss Teresa
Teresa: I agree completely…loved that book and the mini-series did such an incredible job of portraying the characters. I was sad when it ended.
This is simply dazzling, Vanessa. So magical and incredibly beautiful. I am trying to wring out the last bits of summer before we move into fall and getting back on track after a divinely content summer. Lots of art (it’s all in my current post on Marmelade Gypsy) and lots of fun. Life is very, very good. And here it is very, very beautiful!
Oh! Goody! I am happy to hear Misha enjoyed the book too. It was such a deep, dark fairy tale. I have posted about it on my blog too!
XO to everyone!
Teresa in California
http://amagicalwhimsy.blogspot.com/
I am enchanted as I sip my Earl Grey w/milk and nibble on Swedish orange thins…dearest Vanessa, you have a gift of brilliance and magic…
Gorgeous…these colors bring me such joy…and I am so glad there is joy in your world as the changing season brings boundless gifts.
I feel very blessed to have been able to experience this Boticelli work in Florence…it was one of the most magical moments I’ve ever had…
A chill is in the air here in MN…and Queen Autumn is busy painting the leaves…I love it… 🙂
Love to you,
~ Irina
Oh Vanessa, you did it! The very thing that Alice and Mary Poppins did. Yes, some fall down a rabbit-hole, others jump right into the middle of a painting. Remember the chalk drawings? A pinch of witchcraft and a spoonful of imagination is all you need to find yourself transported back in time and into a „supercalifragilisticexpialidocious“ reality.
Secret ties do exist between the worlds captured in paintings and ours which we call the „real“ one. Of that I’m convinced! What Botticelli painted so many years ago is, in many ways, like a mirror of your own beautiful garden. I’m sure you can feel Flora’s presence among your flowers. And doesn’t Venus herself stroll through your blooming paradise from time to time happily pleased with your work?
You have created an ambrosial „Island of the Blessed“ for Chloris, the godess of flowers, and her dancing friends, the three Graces, for Zephyrus, God of the Winds, and the rest of the merry and mighty lot. In return they have rewarded you by letting you step into their world and treating you as one of them for a twinkle of an eye. You say you were there. I believe you, for I know how it is to cross invisible borders. More than once I have flung open the enchanted gate between the world of fact and that other place called Neverland.
So beautiful. Some days just turn into perfect.
I’ve been scrapbooking. I love time with paper, photos, stamps, tape, etc. We’ve been busy with hubby’s doctor’s appointments. So it is good when I can just focus on other things.
Fall is pushing summer away, it is cooler at night. We have had days of not having the air conditioner on and the trees are starting to change colors.
your website is so beautiful I can’t even come up with a word for the beauty it filled me with peace and happiness iF only for a moment