Celebrate Summer With Perfect Peaches Watercolor

There's something special about summer.

Days are long with brilliant sunshine, and time seems to stand still on the hottest days, helping us make some of our greatest memories in summertime.

One of my paintings, High Summer (Perfect Peaches), captures this experience perfectly. In fact, jurors for the St. Charles Arts Council's new show, Taste of Summer, selected this painting to feature in the show, which runs Wednesday, July 8, through Sunday, August 30, at the Arts Council's ARC Gallery in St. Charles.

Join Me At Opening Reception Thurs., July 16

Let's make some new memories together this summer.

Join me at the opening reception, which will be held Thursday, July 16, from 5 to 7 p.m.

Stand with me before my High Summer (Perfect Peaches) watercolor and drink in the beauty and stillness. Even if this annual hot season feels so fleeting, you can stack up warm and colorful memories in your heart to see you through the fall and winter.

I look forward to seeing you and welcoming you to the exhibit.

About High Summer (Perfect Peaches)

Have you ever been lucky enough to taste a perfect peach?

It's the essence of summer: fully ripe, luscious and juicy, fragrant and sweet.

High Summer (Perfect Peaches) expresses that experience of seeing ripe peaches on a tree in high summer, so beautiful and aromatic you want to reach up through the cool green leaves and pluck one to eat on the spot.

A summer trip to New Mexico inspired me to paint these peaches after seeing this wonderful fruit on trees in the high desert. That trip combined vacation excursions and sight seeing with painting sessions while we were there.

I was so happy I'd brought my watercolor paints, brushes, and papers so I could capture that sight of the peaches as soon as we got home that day. I chose to paint on handmade Asian shuen paper and was so pleased by the result. 

After we returned home, it was time to mount the painting by hand onto another handmade paper, this one made from cotton fibers. After mounting, the painting flattened out and the colors returned to full vibrancy. As natural materials, the two handmade papers combine to express summertime beauty and abundance.

To prepare for the Taste Of Summer show, we worked with a framer to select the "just right" mat and and a yellow wood frame. The framer helped bring my vision to life, floating the transparent painting over an archival orange mat and lifting the glass above the painting so it could breathe and float freely within the complementary frame.

It turned out so well! Do come see it while the show is up - I look forward to seeing you at the opening on July 16 if you can make it.

See More Colorful Nature Paintings

Check out more of my colorful nature watercolors: visit my Flower Collections page now. 

One of the collections highlights bright flowers on highly textured branches. The other collections celebrate mornings in spring and the gentleness of flowers.

ARC Gallery Location, Hours

ARC Gallery operates within the Arts Resource Center (ARC), which opened last year at 121 N. 2nd Street, Suite H, in downtown St. Charles, IL.

The gallery provides a home for the nonprofit St. Charles Arts Council to showcase and sell artwork by local and regional artists to help fulfill the council's mission to serve and promote the arts and cultural activities in St. Charles to benefit both artists and the community. 

Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed Monday and Tuesday. For more information, visit the St. Charles Arts Council website at https://www.stcharlesartscouncil.org/