Weekend Show – Seeded Earth Studio at Chicago Botanic Garden Art Festival

Tall Stem Poppy

Tall Stem Poppy © 2011 Bo Mackison

Here is one more photo of this gorgeously pink poppy, my favorite flower from this spring.  The soft pink colors combined with a hint of purple, and the bonus raindrops, made this a flower any botanical photographer would love to study and photograph. And I did both.

This weekend I will be at the 1st Annual Chicago Botanic Garden Art Festival in Glencoe, Illinois, an art show organized by Amdur Productions of Highland Park in association with the Botanic Garden. This photograph will be one of the many flower and garden photos in the Seeded Earth Studio booth.

I can think of no better place to display my garden photo gallery than in this magnificent botanical garden.

The art fair will be held on the Esplanade from Friday July 1 through Sunday July 3 — 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The 80 artists in the Chicago Botanic Garden Art Fair will exhibit art that is in some way related to a botanical theme. This promises to be a one of a kind summer art fair.

If you visit the art festival, please come visit my booth, #24. I will be presenting a booth chat about photography at 11 a.m. on Saturday, July 2. Hope to see you there.

—————–

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is looking forward to this weekend’s art fair set in the midst of the Chicago Botanic Gardens–a tiny piece of heaven on earth.

‘Loraine Sunshine’

'Loraine Sunshine' False Sunflower

‘Loraine Sunshine’ False Sunflower © 2011 Bo Mackison

I always thought this flower in my garden was a sunflower. Now I find out, while doing a bit of research for blog writing, that it is not a true sunflower, but a false sunflower. It is a good thing a flower’s beauty is not in its name, but in its looks. Botanically speaking, a sunflower has green leaves, while this flower has green and white variegated leaves. Hence the false label.

'Loraine Sunshine' Variegated Foliage

Variegated © 2011 Bo Mackison

It is a ‘Loraine Sunshine’ heliopsis and when I was in the nursery picking out replacement stock for a few spaces in my garden, one of the reasons I chose this flower was because of its deep yellow color. A second reason was because of its unusual foliage.

——————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is enjoying the backyard garden this year, especially since plentiful rains are keeping everything green and growing.

Almost Daisies

Almost Daisy Time

Almost Daisy Time © 2011 Bo Mackison

The garden is ready to explode with flowers.

We’ve had the rain. Now we just need a few hours of sunshine to get these flowers to pop! The coreopsis, my ‘Loraine sunshine’ plants which are called false sunflowers because they have variegated leaves, the wild geranium, and the Shasta daisies — all are on the verge of blooming.

My garden will be transformed from a garden of few flowers — a couple of iris, the blanket flowers, and a few coral bells the rabbits haven’t yet found — to a flower riot of yellows, whites, and purples.

This is the time of year when I love to take a break from my computer in mid-afternoon, pull my Adirondack chair under the shade of the maple tree, grab a good book and a glass of iced tea, and “set for a spell” as my grandma used to say.

Summer heaven!

—————

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. When she is not admiring her flower garden, she is photographing the flowers and getting ready for the Spring Green Art Fair this weekend in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Three Birches

Birches

Three Birches © 2011 Bo Mackison

I appreciate simple things. A walk through shaggy grass, the smooth patterns in birch bark, the sun warming my back, the chickadees chit-chit-chittering above my head.

It’s easy to get lost in the hustle bustle, the long to-do lists. I watch the boxes on my calendar fill with obligations and appointments. I spend my  week-ends exhibiting in art fairs — my new addiction.  So, especially during the busy weekends, I plan so I can take some quiet time for myself, time to re-charge, time to slow down, find a space for a walk in nature, and appreciate the simple things.

—————

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is at the Leeper Park Art Fair this weekend, June 18 and 19, in South Bend, Indiana. She found time to slow down and appreciate the beauty surrounding her.

 

Floating Poppy

Floating Poppy

A Fresh Start © 2011 Bo Mackison

One more poppy photograph. I love how this flower seems to be floating in a field of green – suspended, spattered with raindrops.

The poppy has many symbolic associations – beauty, magic, eternal life. In Chinese art, poppies represent the loyalty and faith between lovers. Most of the legends about poppies refer to red or deep orange poppies, and many of these stories connect the poppy with eternal sleep. (Remember the sleep-inducing poppy fields in the Wizard of Oz?)

For me, the pink poppy is not a sleeper. And I love its recently rain washed appearance, so I made my own connection for pink poppies — “fresh start.”

——————-

Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC. She is looking for a spot in her perennial garden to plant her newest favorite flower–the pink poppy.