Spring
Paintings, art, music, film, books, & more.
Spring, over the years, has become a leading contender for my favorite season. After the bleak winter season, it always feels like the most optimistic season full of hope and promises and it actually follows through as we witness the flowers popping up, leaves unfurling from tree branches, and new life all around.
Spring is the season where you can look around and think “yeah, maybe everything will be ok.”
Let’s have a little spring indulgence through paintings, art, music, film, books and more.
Paintings
In the painting above, Untitled (Yellow House with Yellow Roses) by Matilda Browne, Matilda painted the yellow house in Old Lyme, CT where she lived for 4 years after the First World War. She featured it often in her paintings as well as her garden.
That painting looks like the epitome of spring to me with the varying shades of yellow and green, the dappled light, and sunshine. I can almost smell the fresh air.
The yellow house where Van Gogh lived and worked in Arles. He stayed here for 15 months and created over 300 paintings!
I could sit here forever. Pierre Bonnard was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker. He was a founding member of Les Nabis, a group of post impressionist avante-garde painters. He painted a wide range of subjects including portraits, interiors, landscapes, and urban scenes, often prioritizing the use of color and texture over accuracy of what he was painting.
I think the reason I enjoy impressionism so much is because I believe the painters in this period really knew the color wheel very well and generously employed it to create tonal masterpieces.
It’s a feast for the eyes. As Emily Dickinson said, “Bring me the sunset in a cup”.
Film
Hilma is based on the true story of Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), a Swedish pioneer of Abstract Expressionism. Hilma studied landscape and botanical art at the Swedish Royal Academy of fine arts and hid behind the facade of being a painter of nature.
But privately, she was exploring abstract art and her spiritual interests with a spiritual group she cofounded with 4 other women called “De Fem” (The Five). They would have seances to contact the “High Masters”, spirits that held knowledge of the universe’s mysteries. These seances, along with af Klint’s mediumship practice of letting spirits control her paintbrush, led to much of her abstract creations.
Af Klint intentionally hid away her abstract work with instructions to be uncovered no sooner than 20 years after her death, stating that people would not understand what she was trying to do. It wasn’t until the 1980’s her work was exhibited for the world to see.
I find her story so fascinating! The film is available to watch through viaplay. If you go through amazon prime you can sign up for a 1 week free trial of viaplay to watch it.
Music
I’m certain I’ve mentioned this playlist here before but it’s such a good one for spring and I’ve been listening to it the past few weeks.
It’s my spring classical playlist on spotify. I’m listening to it now and it’s the perfect background music for working, for thinking, cleaning, or whatever else you may be doing.
Spring book recommendations
A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood - This is set in the summer but it gives hopeful spring vibes. It’s 1929 and a young woman living on the coast of England meets her neighbors who live in a grand house next door that’s only accessible when the tide is out and she can walk over to their property. She wants to be a writer and befriends the adult siblings who own the house. It gives Great Gatsby vibes in atmosphere.
Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell - Emily may have been a recluse but she was a prolific gardener. This book is all about the garden she tended through poems, letters, photos, and art.
Iris by Courtney L Smith - Hey, what can I say. Every season is featured in here but the spring poems are some of my favorites.
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer- Exactly what the title describes and offers us the hope nature emanates in the spring months. I have a full review of this book here.
Old Herbaceous: A Novel of the Garden by Reginald Arkell - A slow sweet classic about an orphan boy who grows up to be a head gardener and esteemed flower show judge. This one feels like a Saturday afternoon with a cup of tea near a sunny open window, the birds are chirping, and maybe you doze off a bit to wake up in dancing light shining through the trees of your garden.
Spring Quotes
“Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.” - John Ruskin
“Flowers teach hope and patience. Flowers teach tenderness. Flowers teach futility and amazement. You know me, I am always willing to learn. Besides, it is spring. The beautiful forces of nature refuse to remain silent and I feel like observing everything.” -Katherine Mansfield
“The sun just touched the morning; The morning, happy thing, Supposed that he had come to dwell, And life would be all spring.” - Emily Dickinson
“It is spring, and the night wind is moist with the smell of the early flowers; the moon pours out its beauty..” - Margaret Atwood
The quote I’m choosing to live by at the moment:
“A little madness in the spring is wholesome.” - Emily Dickinson
And lastly, not necessarily spring but most definitely topical:
“There is a direct connection between what you’re watching, reading, and listening to all day, and how you feel. Your energy levels, your mood, your ambition.” - Marie Forleo
If there’s anything you’d like to see me write about here, let me know. I feel like I’m in a bit of a lull since my mind has been on other things.
See you soon.
x,
Courtney
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