“Inside My Bleeding Heart” – Medium: Watercolor – Painted 7/6/2012
The Inspiration Photo for “Inside My Bleeding Heart”
I really enjoyed painting my first watercolor, “Cherry Blossoms for Mary,” and have veered from the pencil medium again in my second painting, “Inside My Bleeding Heart.”
My husband and I bought our house over 10 years ago from the great aunt of his best friend’s wife. The experience gave me a lesson in perspective. His friend, who lives in somewhat of a McMansion by my perspective, hesitatingly mentioned the house to us. My husband asked if the house was nice, and again, his friend hesitated. My husband told me about the house with the same trepidation. “I’m not sure we will like it, Donna, and I don’t know why.” He said his friend wouldn’t come out and say what was wrong with it.
We looked around a while and after a couple months decided to go see the house. I loved it! I loved the nice yard, the partial brick construction, the three bedrooms, the great curb appeal, the good bones, and of course, the nice neighbors. Unlike his friend, we had no children (he had three) and wanted a house that wouldn’t make us spend every moment either working to maintain it or working to pay for it. We bought our home owner-to-owner right before the real estate bubble and refinanced it a year later, which lowered the mortgage even further. Over the years, we used the money we saved to not only travel, but to add a big beautiful deck, upgraded electric, a new HVAC system, and a new roof. 10 years later that decision saved our home, as we struggle like many others in this horrible economy.
One of the things I love about our home is the landscaping. Something blooms every season except sometimes in the dead of winter. The first spring blooms come from tulips and hyacinths. Then, a few of the bushes turn a bright yellow, while others grow pretty white flowers. All summer I enjoy roses from one hearty bush, as long as I dead head the spent blooms. The rose bush grows near an outside dryer vent and has been known to give us beautiful flowers, even in the winter. Once the mums finish their fall season, the bushes that turn yellow in the spring produce little red winter berries.
One of my favorite spring blooming bushes is a little bleeding heart the previous owners planted next to our shed. I never saw a bleeding heart bush before this one, and it excited me to no end. Throughout the bush, lush green leaves protect and showcase pretty pink hearts with luminous white tails. Once the bush spends itself in the early summer, I prune the brown, dry leaves, back to the ground. Each year, the bleeding heart bush grows back bigger and lovelier than the year before.
The in-laws of my husband’s best friend live around the corner from us. They are lovely people, and his mother-in-law (the niece of the previous owners of our home) stopped by the first year we lived here to ask if she could transplant the little bush to their yard. It held a special place in her heart, but she didn’t seem eager to share the story with me. I said ok, but she never came to dig up the little bush that year. The following year, she said she did not want to move the plant for fear it would die. Now, I would not part with it. I suffer with an annual touch of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) during the dark, cold winter months and anxiously await the early spring flowers that signal the fresh, bright change to come.
This watercolor not only represents my homage to that little bleeding heart bush, it represents my homage to spring. I cannot wait for the archival framing to arrive, so I can show my neighbor around the corner. The painting will have a white mat and a pretty black frame. I love the way sleek black brings out the colors in my art, and it has become my go-to frame color. I also love that color fills the whole piece, and I hope the painting conveys how the leaves envelop and protect the delicate bleeding heart flowers. I took a little artistic license by adding a touch of blue sky to the very top of the painting. The backdrop to this bush is actually my light gray shed, but bright blue skies feel more like spring.
Donna Forrest
An Artist’s Path: Wellsboro, PA – May 2012