"Hedges"

Postcards from Merion

This was my first painting of the year completed outside, as I have been working from sketches and photos in my studio.  It is an exhilerating struggle.  The light changes, the wind blows or the sun is too hot ... and there is so much more to choose from visually.

It is the first flowering of this year (after the weeping cherry tree), with Korean lilacs, Forget-me-nots from New Zealand, and Spanish Bells.  What an international dance to welcome spring.

The old privet hedges, probably originating in England or Ireland, march along keeping order, with the Japanes Katsura as chaparone. And then there are the gout weed (England) or pinellia (Asia) rudely cutting in.

Just like humans the plants are all jostling for a place in the sun.