Summer Studio News

Hello and happy August from St. Louis! I hope you are having a wonderful summer so far. This summer, I was grateful for the chance to step away from the studio for a ten-day trip to England with my husband Joel (our first big international trip since we got married in 2020) followed by a family road trip to Colorado to help welcome my baby niece into the world and celebrate my nephew's second birthday. As I find my stride again here at home, I'm excited to share what I've been working on.

This May, Joel and I were honored to be hosts for the St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour, organized by the Audubon Society, Wild Ones STL, and Bringing Conservation Home. We were one of 11 hosts in Maplewood and Southwest City to welcome visitors into their yards to showcase the many ways we can increase the biodiversity of our communities through native gardening.

We were overwhelmed by the positive response to our garden! Over 250 visitors came to see the yard. We've put so much love and effort into this garden over the past four years, and it was so rewarding to get to share it. Thank you to everyone who attended!

I was also thrilled to offer a morning of watercolor painting in my backyard. This class focused on painting flowers within a landscape from observation in watercolor. The garden had a great selection of native wildflowers in bloom as well as some of my favorite annual flower varieties: dahlias, zinnias, and cosmos. I loved sharing the backyard "studio" and couldn't have asked for a more joyful, open, and creative group. Seeing the garden through their eyes was such a gift!