Lavender Fields - Uncommon Escape! - SOLD! & Working In A Series

12"x36"x2"deep cradled wood panel



"The fragrance of sandalwood, the scent of rose and jasmine, travel only as far as the wind. But the fragrance of goodness travels through all the worlds, like the garlands woven from a heap of flowers, fashion your life as a garland of beautiful deeds." ~ Buddha

As an artist, if you haven't tried working in a series, I highly recommend it. For the most part, this is how I usually work, (with a variation throw in here and there if I'm working on a commission, or perhaps exploring for the 'next series'. Several years ago, I was painting landscapes of Ireland following several plein air trips I had made over there. When I came hoe I had loads of photos, and journal notes about the places I had seen, painted, and spent time with. I painted more of these landscapes in the studio.

Monet spent many years in his own garden, I've found great inspiration in my own garden as well. Other series I've had explored are local parks and gardens, floral still lifes (both indoor and outside- painted from life).

As you complete each painting, you think of things you'd like to try in the 'next' one. Perhaps something similar but push the color a different way, or try a change of perspective, a view from higher up, or from a lower vantage point, or closer in, or farther away. Keeping a series going day after day is helpful,too. The closer these ideas are to each other the better, allowing you to really absorb and use the things you are taking in.

You may find a preference to paint under certain weather conditions, or bloom seasons, or availability to travel. When considering your 'next' series - be open to all possibilities, even if that turns out not to be one that you follow for now. I don't consider myself a 'winter painter' or have any great love of snow scenes, but each winter I do give it a try to see if that 'spark of interest' ignites within me. One of these years - it's bound to light!

Lavender Varieties

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems." ~Rainer Maria Rilke


One thing that is a wonderful sight to behold is a farm field where you can stand back and see "the big picture"...curving rows, following a hillside, or a bend in the road...and in this case certain varieties of lavender that are dark purple, alternating with a variety that's lighter in color! One more visual thrill that I love about this place- Keys Creek Lavender Farm, in Valley Center, CA.

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Pines and Lavender Hillsides

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel

“Inward calm cannot be maintained unless physical strength is constantly and intelligently replenished.” -Buddha

I really loved getting to paint out at Keys Creek, it was such a beautiful, calm place - just a real balm to the senses. Funny how painting plein air just locks in those good memories to draw from & be able to paint it again in the studio from the wonderful views all over that place. (I keep thinking of the warm sun, the fragrance wafting over the blossoms, and the 'drunken' bees just humming around, oblivious to anyone else.) Then when you're quiet & standing painting, you notice hummingbirds nearby in the bouganvillia arch, hawks flying over the distant hills, songbirds in the trees edging the property. The magic just comes together...makes you feel lucky to be a painter! I know my fellow painters know that feeling! and yes, as Buddha says, that inward calm comes from replenishing and nurturing our physical selves. (Did Buddha ever walk through lavender?)

While it's wet:

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Lavender Lovelies

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel


"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." ~John Muir

John Muir sums up my thoughts so well. My visit to Keys Creek Lavender Farm is certainly one of those beautiful, natural places where nature heals and gives strength to body and soul. I'm sure that's why I've enjoyed painting from memory as much as I did painting out on location there. I'm hoping for a return visit some time this summer!

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Lavender To the Foothills

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.... People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back." ~Alice Walker, The Color Purple, 1982

This is one of my favorite quotes, and I do remember back to that movie oh so many decades ago. And how could we not notice such beauty, and know it was created just for us to enjoy, and be nurtured by?

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Lavender Valley

5"x7" oil on gessoed masonite archival panel

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


Emerson really knows what I need to hear all winter....patience, summer warmth will come back again. Slow, steady....live in the moment....and day-dreaming is optional!

Lavender thoughts are sustaining me lately - not that this winter has been as harsh as last year. But I do crave those long days of sunshine with flowers tossing their blossoms to and fro. Wafting fragrance and the hum of flower-drunken honey bees.

Keys Creek Lavender Farm (Valley Center, CA) is one of those magical places that will forever have an effect on my painterly life. Being able to spend a few days painting on location locks these wonderful sensory elements into my brain. mmmm, can you feel the sunshine and smell that lofty fragrance???

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Luscious Lavender Rows

5"x7" oil on gessoed archival panel

"With immediacy and intensity, smell activates the memory, allowing our minds to travel freely in time." -Tom Robbins

Along with plein air works, I had brought home some 'souvenirs' of my visit to Keys Creek Lavender Farm (in Valley Center, CA). It's true, the fragrance will bring back such wonderful memories. Rows of lavender, sweeping and waving in the soft breeze bring such delight. I was so attracted to the 'abstractness' of this view, I now have a larger painting in the works with this view!

For more information regarding this painting, contact me here.

My website: www.roxannesteed.com