This is my latest painting, "Button Plants and Wood Ducks." It's a 24" x 18" acrylic painting on birch board, my largest to date. My neighbor's section of the marsh that we share has a profusion of Button Plants. They are gorgeous things with orb-like flowers that start out chartreuse and burnt sienna and bloom into balls of tiny white blossoms. The marsh is a very busy place. I see a pair of wood ducks every spring; later I see their ducklings. The deer troop through at cooler times of day, eating breakfast or dinner. And lately I've seen a fisher. He's up there in the tree. He may have his eye on the ducks. Fortunately the mourning doves are hidden. There's red osier dogwood blooming at the bottom along with pink water pepper. It looks like someone's home at the green house.

This will be my last blog post for a while. For the past few years I've entered an embarrassing number of art shows. I have never had my work accepted. After a career in graphic design where I had to bid on jobs I grew a fairly thick skin, rejections rarely bothered me. Even so this year I decided to end the self-flagellation and stop submitting to shows and paying strangers $35 or more each time to consider my paintings. And guess what? Out of the blue I've been offered a solo show at the Gardiner Public Library. It's ironic. When I had my design business in Chicago my second client was the American Library Association. They were my client the entire twenty years that I had my business. I have always felt good about all the work I did to promote libraries and reading and now here's a beautiful, new library in a lovely little town offering me a show. You've certainly gathered that these paintings take me a long time to do and while the show isn't until November 2017 I feel I need to focus. The blog will be on hiatus. I'm also closing my Etsy shop, the fewer distractions the better. I can't thank you enough, all of you who have followed and supported my efforts. I'll still be around and if you're interested in seeing what I'm working on you can follow me on Instagram.

instagram.com/nataliewargin/

As a "Thank You" please take 50% off any Etsy purchase.
Sale runs from Friday, September 2 through Sunday, September 4.
THANKYOU50
After September 4 my shop will be closed.