Art Show, Syllabi, & Evening Primrose

What a month August has been.

I had my second-ever art show (which was fabulous), left the next morning for a week at the beach (also fabulous), and came home to begin cleaning up my art studio.

Um, define “begin.” I looked through all the stuff I had stacked in there. Does that count?

I also started writing syllabi and course content for my soon-to-begin classes at Appalachian State.

Whew.

Isn’t that enough?

Not in the least.

Because I’m currently obsessed with Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis), and would much rather spend my time thinking about how much I adore this plant.

I want to eat it in my salads (tasty, and who doesn’t love flowers in their salads?), pick it for bouquets, and more than anything else, paint it. All day and all night long.

Primrose is easy to fall in love with. Sturdy plants that happily colonize roadside ditches and fields, they bloom so quickly in the evening that you can actually watch the tawny-gold petals unfold.

The flower lasts only until about noon the next day—but no worries. There are lots more waiting on every stem.

A delight of primroses.

A pleasure of primroses.

A charm, a party, a parade!

The biggest colony near me starts right at my road and happily wades out into a wild field. These particular primroses are about four feet tall and utterly wild with blooms.

I cut some for a bouquet and accidentally carried home a pretty yellow-and-pink primrose moth (Schinia florida) along with them. She spent the day climbing in and out of the flowers at my house, despite the fact that primrose moths are generally nocturnal.

Yellow has always been my favorite color. My childhood bedroom was primrose yellow, and my current bedspread and bedside rugs are the same.

So recently I painted with this yellow.

And I came away with a deeply satisfying little piece that I’m calling…

Well.

You know what I call it.

Everything about this tiny 4×6 abstract gives me joy: the gold metalwork, the hints of fresh green, and that celebratory, irrepressible primrose yellow.

I took it—reluctantly?—to the art show.

And I was secretly relieved when no one bought it.

I plan to keep it on my own wall for a while.

And then paint ten more.

Or a zillion.

P.S. Show photos are coming in my next post. Pinky-primrose promise! 🌼