Inspiration From Gardens & Flowers

I love flowers and gardens.  The women in my family are influencers who shared their love of flowers with me.  My earliest memories are me with my Grandmom Fleischmann planting zinnias in her flower beds.  She always got market packs of bright colors.  My Grandmom Winter had gardens around her house full of black-eyed-susans and roses.  And then there’s my Mom, who filled our yard with daisies, chrysanthemums, tulips, and azaleas, to name a few.  

     

When I was in high school, I got to have my own section of garden to plant flowers.  I filled it with wildflower seeds, then watched as echinacea, calendulas, and cornflowers grew and bloomed.  I took photos with my compact camera, though grainy and not the best balanced composition, it was my start.

Then

Now

The digital camera had a huge impact on my photography.  No longer waiting until the roll of film was finished to send off for development, then opening the package to see if the photographs turned out or not.  With the larger display screen versus the tiny viewing window, it became easier to balance the composition.  I took photos of flowers, vegetables, and nature trails.  I captured images of butterflies and caterpillars.  I took my flash drive to my favorite one-hour printer (unfortunately no longer there.) Prints fill my photo albums.  

                               

                                                     

It was around this same time that I started painting flowers.  I always loved art in school and had even considered becoming an art teacher.  At first, I focused on daisies and coneflowers.  When I wanted to paint crocuses, I took a picture and made sketches.  The same with pansies, then lilies.  If I didn’t have my own picture, I searched online for images from which to draw.  

With the advent of camera phones, I now have a way of sharing my photographs of flowers and nature with other people.  When visiting my parents, I wander around their yard taking pictures.  My Mom has filled the gardens with a wide variety of perennials, surrounded by groundcovers like periwinkle and flox.  She has indigo clematis, orange butterfly weed, and black-eyed-susans (a reminder of my parents’ home state of Maryland.)  Some of my wildflowers are still there in my old section of the garden with mums and daisies mixed in now.  

       

Nature continues to be a major inspiration in my life; whether I am hiking in the woods or reading in the backyard beside the gardens.  I love having the ability to share my photos and share my inspiration.  With so many social media options and the adverse effects that social media can have on us, I have chosen to focus on one format, Instagram.  My handle is @snowywindgrams.  

        

*All photos taken and owned by me