Hello,
I’m so glad you’re here -- and a warm welcome to the latest batch of new subscribers. This correspondence is about color and connection and gardens and making. For a little more detail about the me behind the screen, allow me to introduce myself; here’s the origin story of my daily color study practice. This past month it’s been (cough, cough) interesting to watch my new class, Color In and Out of the Garden, roll out on Creativebug. (First of all—would it kill me to smile more?) Yet overall, I’m delighted at the generosity of people painting along with me, uploading their color studies, and commenting on what this simple practice means to them. The series is now a part of the Creativebug library of art, design, and crafting classes where you can watch it whenever you want or over and over. Each day, all 31 of them, I talk about color and share how I record my color studies. The segments are short, typically around 5-8 minutes, but the entire series adds up to more than 3 hours of instruction and my heartfelt encouragement to pick up a brush and begin to cultivate your own color stories. No prior experience is necessary, this practice is focused on seeing and paying attention to the natural world around us.
I put so much work and heart into the class, I’m excited that it’s now out in the world on a platform that encourages people to nurture their creativity. Sound interesting? Click on the button below to get a 60-day trial and start streaming everything on the site – including my daily practice series – for FREE. As a Creativebug instructor, I receive a small commission through my links, but don’t worry, it doesn’t cost you any extra. I’m grateful for the chance to promote my work while supporting those that have invested in me.
xo Lorene
In the Store
Summer is almost here. Send a salty postcard to friends back home or simply record notes about your imaginary travels (more on that below.) With a looming house project that’s set to begin today, I’m especially thankful that I live in a beautiful place filled with blue skies and beaches. I’m not going anywhere!
All postcards now come with or without envelopes.
Enter the code: SALTY at checkout and get 10% off any set of postcards purchased in June.
Recent writing: Bunnies, Be Gone! Gardeners love plants, and rabbits love garden. Here’s how to cope, GROW in The Seattle Times * fun fact: directions for the wire cloches discussed in the story are a part of the Resources Library for paid subscribers.
Recent reading: What We Sow, on the Personal, Ecological, and Cultural Significance of Seeds, by Jennifer Jewel. My advance reading copy of Jennifer’s latest title just arrived and I can’t wait to dig in to this love song and botanical treatise on the power of seed. Pub date: September 19, 2023 (Preorder today)
You’ll find this book, along with a selection of my favorite authors and titles in my a handmade garden BOOKSHOP.
Upcoming events:
Molbak’s Home + Garden, Saturday, June 10, 10am to 11am, Free talk: Gardening Matters
An Author’s Salon with Lorene Edwards Forkner & Bridget Beth Collins in a field of lavender on the Summer Solstice in a benefit for the King Country Library System Foundation, Wednesday, June 21, 6pm to 9pm — Purchase tickets here
Workshop: Seeing Color in the Garden, a hands-on color workshop with Lorene Edwards Forkner at the Fleurs Creative Studio, Saturday, August 12, 10am to 12pm. Space is limited, reserve your spot soon.
Color my world
May 24, 2023
Big, blowsy, and buxom. A veritable petticoat of a blossom, but such very brief bloom season.
May 25, 2023
Pacific Coast Hybrid Iris season has come and gone quickly, thanks to our very unseasonal heat wave. I’m glad I made time to capture this color study.
For years I called this plant ‘Beige’, a far less showy cousin to the fabulous root beer ‘Juno’ that I posted a week or so ago. Then I began referring to it as ‘the other one’. But this year I employed a little twist of language to give the plants a proper title worthy of their subtle (murky?) watercolor shades.
'Tarnished Copper'? ‘Cashmere’? I settled on ‘Dusk’ —> above right
...but ‘Root Beer Float’ was a serious contender.
May 26, 2023
An apology is in order. In last week’s newsletter I extolled the beauty of the tender sherbet-hued ranunculus blooming in my garden while disparaging the one that bloomed “red.” Well, I spoke too soon and now stand corrected.
It’s true that the bud was an alarming cherry hue, but as the frilled and ruffled blossom opened, the most glorious shades of merlot, mahogany, crimson and berry emerged. And - even better - as the flower has aged, the colors continue to ripen into deeper more nuanced shades of themselves. That flush of greyed garnet at the edge of the petals is my favorite. No doubt there’s a lesson in here about appreciating the process of ripening, but honestly the sooner I move this plant away from the gentle pastels surrounding it, the better.
May 27, 2023
Every fall I buy a load of pansies (& smaller violas) for planting up containers on the back stoop and to keep me company through the winter. Undaunted by pelting rain, freezing conditions or buried in snow, the only real threat to these hardy botanicals are voracious slugs. Pansies also provide a steady stream of blossoms for my color studies during the darkest months of the year.
By spring they’re a little lanky. That’s when I honor their performance by cutting stems, cleaning off most of the tired foliage and making a very casual posey in my treasured vase. —> right
Often I transplant the plants into another part of the garden where, with a little luck, the plants rebound and give me another month or so of flowers.
May 28, 2023
Seed pods represent such potential. We’re on the cusp of a basement renovation. An effort to “finish” a space we’ve lived with, apparently unfinished, for decades.
We gardeners are pretty good at imagining what the future will look like. But right now, all I see is heavy lifting and books. Lots and lots of heavy boxes filled with books.
May 29, 2023
In addition to my usual crops — yay, the fava beans are flowering!!! — this year I’m focusing on cultivating flavor and fantasy travel. For example: Homegrown herbes de Provence and lots of lavender (France). All the basil for pesto and pasta (Italy). Chamomile, roses, mint and lemon verbena for tea (England). Parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme, my go-to evergreen herbs (and Simon and Garfunkel).
Chives, more parsley and rhubarb transport me back to childhood and making potions in the neighbor’s backyard (sorry) — these days I get fresh flavor and crumble. The strawberries are girded with wire cloches in hopes of the ruby red berries making their way into my kitchen, rather than feeding the local rabbit and bird population. Salads mixed with nasturtium blooms and begonia petals — because I can make the effort and it feels special.
In some ways this approach to the edible garden feels like setting a silly low bar. On the other hand, with no trips of any kind on the books for the foreseeable future, growing flavor feels like a magic carpet ride.
May 30, 2023
Honestly, I should probably be concerned about a perennial that seeds itself into the moss on the back stoop —> right, cracks in the brick mortar, and carelessly throughout my beds and borders. Instead, I’m thrilled.
Happy Summer and a huge thank you to those of you who support my work with a paid subscription. This month’s subscriber download is a list of my favorite paints that I use to create my color studies.
Follow this link to read about my go-to materials and download a copy if you’d like.
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