Midnight. A New Painting.

July 18, 2024 Natalie Wargin

This painting was a challenge. It was a commission, a continuation of a story I began in an earlier piece about the tomato plant that fairly took over my front yard. Maybe you remember it with the lovely girl in her front garden picking a basket full of ripe tomatoes. The assignment here was to place our tomato girl in her garden again but this time at night. I don’t have a lot of experience painting night scenes. This is where I landed.

It’s a mild full moon night, the lady of the house sits on the bench in her side yard holding her squirming cat. There’s no doubt about her green thumb. The wild tomato plant in the front yard was no fluke. In fact you can see it at the edges of the scene trying to find a place here too. The air is perfumed with roses, peonies, dogwoods, tulips, trout lilies, daffodils, and those little seedy things. There’s scarcely room for anything else, the gardening style here being one of wild abandon. The little stream adds soft background music while birds and animals rest. The house is welcoming, warm light from the open window.

This is only the third commission I’ve taken. The first one was a success all around, the second was a nightmare which made me hesitant to take this “Midnight” assignment. But the patron was happy to review a sketch and then let me run with it. I was grateful for that and we are both pleased with the result.

“Midnight”
24 x 18 inches
Acrylic on claybord

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1732756934/midnight-garden-art-print-of-original?click_key=88a21fe8b96e6e20b8bd45200102a90f8b7ee42c%3A1732756934&click_sum=70cc18d9&ref=shop_home_active_1

Thanks, as always, for taking a look!

Peonies in Colored Pencil

July 26, 2019 Natalie Wargin

I may have mentioned that I have never had a green thumb. Garden success has always run in my family but I have had very little of it. My grandparents had a prolific flower garden behind their house. They also had a bountiful “Victory Garden” in a nearby plot shared with their neighbors following the second world war. My grandmother liked to tell me, as we toured her yard, about the beautiful gardens in Poland which inspired her. My mother always grew flowers. She got things to grow in the most unlikely places, a dizzying stand of purple irises right next to the garbage cans in the alley. My father had a postage stamp sized vegetable garden that gave an impressive yield. My sister has grown garlic commercially. And my brother in California, boastful thing that he is, loves to show us not only photos of his flowers and vegetables but also the system he designed that lets him water his plants from anywhere on the planet. By comparison I could get very little to thrive in my Chicago garden. But the times they are a-changing.

The Hudson Valley soil is rich. That must be a big part of it but my garden is definitely growing now. I have always wanted a peony hedge and when I found a sale a year ago, an offer I couldn’t refuse, I ordered ten roots. This spring I was rewarded. Not quite a full hedge yet but close and the blooms were impressive. Pinks and reds, including the color I love best, the pale pale almost white peony. This pencil drawing shows a bouquet of those flowers.

“Peonies.”
25’ x 19”
Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore drawing paper.
$275.

The original and prints of the image are available in my shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/720837001/peonies-original-colored-pencil-drawing?ref=shop_home_active_3&frs=1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/720835595/peonies-art-print-of-original-colored?ref=shop_home_active_4&frs=1

In addition to the new drawing I’ve also added some new greeting cards. You can find them here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/NatalieWargin?section_id=14952051

I have made some changes to my shop, now offering free shipping always on any order over $35.
In addition to this I’m running a sale, 20% off on any purchase of any amount from Friday, July 26 through Monday, July 29.

Thank you for following along!

Daffodils in Colored Pencil

June 21, 2019 Natalie Wargin

Shortly after I moved into this house in New York my sister, who lives only three miles from me, came over with a bunch of daffodil bulbs. Three varieties. I chose a spot which was easy because these would be the first things I planted here and there was plenty of room for planting. Now, eleven years later, they still come up in the spring, a reminder of where my garden began. This was the first small bouquet of the year. If you’ve been following me at all you’re familiar with the little blue vase. It really is a tiny thing and I chuckle at the absurd size it’s become. It did hold the daffodils but it’s simply not as large as it looks here. I’ve invented the table and the table scarf. I wanted some movement in this drawing and the blue linen cloth provided that. There must be a window open somewhere. The wallpaper pattern is taken from an older drawing of soapwort. The sparrows are there because I love sparrows.

“Daffodils”
Prismacolor pencils on Strathmore drawing paper.
19” x 25”

The original drawing and prints of the image are available in my shop.
All shop items are 20% off from June 21 through June 23.

You can find the original drawing here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/714829157/daffodils-original-colored-pencil?ref=listing_published_alert

Find the print here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/714826829/daffodils-art-print-of-original-colored?ref=shop_home_active_2

Thanks so much for following along!

A Still Life in Colored Pencil

March 8, 2019 Natalie Wargin

There’s a long and not especially interesting story behind my decision to do this piece in colored pencil. I won’t bore you. Mostly though I blame my friends and family who have given me many sets of colored pencils over the years, none of which I’ve used until now. This floral still life is a reprise of a portion of a previous painting and features an arrangement of eucalyptus and thistle. The eucalyptus leaves fall softly around the bowl, buds very white. The bright pink thistles stand tall. The wallpaper pattern of subtle doves and garland makes a background. Someone spilled some sugar on the table. The ants are busy and happy. One may be whistling. A caterpillar seems interested.

This drawing is 30” x 22” on black Stonehenge paper. I used Prismacolor pencils which were a surprise and a delight. They are soft and waxy and they blend and cover well. And, lucky for me, they don’t smear if you brush a sleeve over the work. I think there will be more pencil work to come.

Prints of this image are available in my Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/674332648/art-print-original-colored-pencil?ref=listing_published_alert
And I’m offering free shipping on all domestic orders from March 8 through March 12. No code necessary.

Thank you for indulging me.

Happy Holidays!

December 11, 2018 Natalie Wargin

I realize that Lily of the Valley aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the holidays but I was in the mood to paint some flowers. I picked these in the spring and put them in the mottled blue vase and took some photos for “future” reference. It turned out that November was the “future.” I like this little vase, a gift from long ago that comes in handy for small things. The wallpaper is loosely based on a pattern design that I created in Illustrator. I don’t know where the red tiles came from but I think they look alright. Maybe a little Christmas-y.

Thanks to all of you for your continued interest in my work. I am grateful. I wish all of you the happiest of holidays, whatever those may be.

“Lily of the Valley,” watercolor, 10” x 12”, on Fabriano paper.

Prints of this painting are available in my Etsy shop.
FREE SHIPPING on every domestic purchase through December 21.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/665131253/art-print-original-watercolor-lily-of?ref=shop_home_active_1

A Bright Bouquet with Two Sparrows

March 31, 2016 Natalie Wargin

There's a small but very special shop one town over. It's the perfect place to find a gift or to get a wildly colorful bouquet and I was lucky enough to receive some of their fancy flowers for my birthday. Scarlet poppies, purple-indigo delphinium, lime-light hydrangeas. I thought I'd paint them even though the arrangement was a bit more colorful than my usual palette. Here they are. Somehow a couple of sparrows got into the picture. If you know me at all you know that I can't just leave things alone. Birds and animals tug at my sleeve every time I pull out my paints. I happen to have a soft spot for sparrows. Small and unassuming, quietly colored, they are hearty and tough. I had some space so in they went.

This is a 9 x 12 inch watercolor and gouache painting. It's available here in my shop:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/286217601/watercolor-painting-original-bouquet?ref=shop_home_active_2
You can find prints of this painting here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/274048834/art-print-watercolor-painting-original?ref=listing-shop-header-1

Spring Bouquet in the Dead of Winter

April 3, 2015 Natalie Wargin

I received a bouquet of gorgeous spring flowers in the middle of February. They couldn't have been more welcome since we here in the northeast were struggling with the freezing gray winter that would not end. As you can see, the bouquet was very colorful and it fell into a very pretty arrangement, thankfully -- I'm not much good at floral arrangement myself. I used my most colorful vase too, a majolica carrot pitcher actually. The flowers lasted about a week but I'd taken a few snaps and, as winter continued to hold on, I decided they needed a longer life. So, the painting. I added a few of the funny green caterpillars I see sometimes. They're in there somewhere.

This is an original watercolor and gouache painting of a bouquet of spring flowers. It's 9.5 x 12 inches (24 x 30 cm). It's available in my Etsy shop along with prints of the image. Find them here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/228382184/watercolor-original-spring-bouquet?ref=shop_home_active_1
https://www.etsy.com/listing/228385231/art-print-original-watercolor-spring?ref=shop_home_active_2

The Trout Lilies are in Bloom

April 30, 2014 Natalie Wargin

"Trout Lillies"   Watercolor Painting — "Trout Lillies" Watercolor Painting

I did this little watercolor of some Trout Lillies. I was walking on the trail and they were all over the place, pretty little yellowish flowers on long thin curving stems with mottled red and green leaves. Apparently they're called Trout Lillies because someone thought the mottled colors resembled the colors on a trout. Turns out I was lucky to see them when I did because the next day the flowers were gone. Deer.

This painting measures 3 1/2 inches x 3 1/2 inches and is available in my Etsy shop.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/187915346/watercolor-painting-original-trout

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