“Lilacs and Kettle”  14″x 18″ oil on canvas 

Spring came indoors for this recent still life painting.  Excited about the new growth on my lilac tree this spring, I decided to take a few clippings and put together a still life set up to work from.  

The lilacs were the main inspiration. Last season this 20+ year old tree was enmeshed in vines that were soaking the life out of it. Instead of giving up hope, I spent some time cutting and pulling out the vines, thinking this might give the tree a new start.  I was pleasantly surprised!

To complete the arrangement, I added in a vintage Mc Coy vase that I love and an old copper kettle with a classic orange.  This seemed to be a pleasant combination of things.  Often, I like to include a sense of pattern.  For this piece I added a swatch of upholstery fabric as inspiration.  This came from a sample book that I found being discarded on the side of the road one day.  It is chock full of beautiful fabrics and I was excited to have it as a resource.