Olga Suvorova ~ Russian Artist Extraordinaire

 

Olga Suvorova/ Ольга Суворова is an acclaimed Russian Master. She was born in 1966 in St. Petersburg. Olga Suvorova has created her own style of painting – lifestyle portraits of costumed characters in the interiors of different epochs. Her work is a nostalgia for the St. Petersburg “World of Art” movement with its retrospective and love of the 18th century. Olga is the daughter of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Igor Suvorov. She graduated from the Academy of Arts of Ilya Repin in 1988. . Her paintings of the players in "Comedia de arte" have a haunting quality that sets her apart from the many young talented artists emerging from the Institute. Recently she has produced a series of magnificently detailed screens which have been widely praised and collected. She also paints portraits and landscapes. Olga has exhibited in Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Britain, Ireland, China, and the USA where her work is in many collections.

I do love her style . . . filling the canvas with the intricacies that can take some time to view and appreciate every stroke of her brush.

Four Pin Friday Artwork I Love

 On a snowy April day, Pinterest is getting a workout on my computer!  Looking for inspiration, I found these gorgeous paintings on wood panels

They look as if they were broken off an old weathered fence.  The colors are so rich over the wood grain.

Love it ♥!

Late Summer Garden

 Last year we put creeping jenny plugs in our garden.  Even with the high heat we had this summer, jenny blanketed the space around our plants and flowers.

Our hops went a little crazy on the trellis (yes, there is a trellis under that growth)

and against all odds, plus the fact that t.o.b. chopped the plant down almost to the ground, a daisy found a way to push up and out!

A second blooming, although small, of my foxglove made me happy.

Not bad for September

Feeling a bit sentimental today

 Today is my mother's birthday and it got me to thinking about her gardens.  One of her favorite flowers was the gladiola.  I remember her sending me to school with a bouquet of glads for my teacher while in grade school.

I have never attempted to grow that type of flower.  Usually stick to the tried and true petunias, alysum, and other easy to grow annuals.  But this year I expanded my horizons with three new and different perennials.

Several years ago, my mother~in~law gifted me what has become my favorite vase ~ a 1930s Tiffin Poppy Black Amethyst satin glass jewel!  It is perfect for my little front porch with the brightly colored "new-for-me" variety of brown~eyed susans, Indian blankets and cone flowers that adorn my back yard today.

The colors make me so happy!  Thank you for the memories Moms ♥

 

silk purse/sow's ear

 Turns out smoky overcast skies are great for photography!

Years ago my son gifted me with a cedar planter box.  It has four legs, a deep bed and measures 3 ft x 4 ft.  Allows me to plant flowers standing up.  Last year ... nothing because of COVID.  Couldn't even get to the nurseries.  

But this year, OH MY, flowers galore!  The heat we've been experiencing has been a good thing for flower~growing.

 Never have I been able to grow sweet potato vine so lush and thick.

Part two Summer Brunch

 You have to be there to believe the gardens of Dawn.  There are paths in and out of her flowers and she has pots overflowing with her beautiful arrangements both front and back.  Too too many for me to show you here.

Just a few of the many roses that dot her gardens ~

and she knows the names of every one of them all!

one whole length of this part, leading up to her French Room, are floral plantings with a gorgeous Japanese maple spreading across the fence in the back

 

A cozy corner 

Dawn and I overlooking the roses

A centerpiece

She thought she could hide!

~

And when weeding and trimming get too hot, she has a shaded cabana and a big above ground pool

What I'm showing you here is a small portion of her gardens.  When asked how she keeps her plantings so healthy and full every year, she says "All you have to do is water it!"

I know there is more to it than that ... a lot of work and love goes into it.  She probably talks to each and every one of the flowers while she's weeding, don't you think? 

  

Summer Brunch at the Ds

 We got to spend a morning at Derek and Dawn's home and gardens.  Haven't photographed their amazing back yard for a long time.  It just keeps getting better and better.  Took 47 photos and tried to pare them down to a manageable few but it was almost impossible.  I decided to split them into two categories ~ bushes, trees and pond first.

Dawn (fabulous flower gardener) and Derek (pond, trees and bushes)

Derek had to criss~cross cords to keep hawks, herons, raccoons from getting to the koi

t.o.b. checking out the pond

boulders and river rocks not natural to the area!

Koi pond dug by hand by Derek. So proud of his accomplishments

Front of house

side yard

Yummy brunch was quiche (and gravy for topping), fruit (melons and strawberries), juice, hash browns, Danish and coffee.

Garden Spaces

 When we moved into our house just over three years ago, our little back yard had a huge space carved out of it that was the base of an above ground pool.  Tamped down dirt!  What to do with it.  The first year not much happened, but the second year we had a plan!

With the help of our son, fresh dirt was mounded up as a Father's Day gift.  Shaped in a circle, it was bordered off with ornamental bricks.  And then the planting began with an evergreen tree at the top of the mount.  Little by little it has been filling up with bushes,  plants, birdbaths, whirligig and a walkway.

It's come a long way since spring of 2018!!

today

birdbath # 1

birdbath #2

Not a whole lot of room left, but we will be filling it up even more.  I added some black-eyed Susans and coneflowers this year for some color.  Probably won't take off 'til next summer tho.