To us, blooming foxgloves have been a sure
sign of summer for many years. While living on the Olympic
Peninsula, we would see “fields” of foxgloves forming beautiful gardens and
disguising the less-than-beautiful clear cuts in which they were
growing. Lately many foxgloves have seeded themselves in our garden,
and they are a welcome sight. It’s amazing how tall some of them can
get, and several this year have inspired both this painting and its
title. I added a tiger swallowtail and a background of miscanthus
grass to complete the design. The artistic inspiration for this work
owes much to the Japanese Rinpa School and Ogata Kenzan’s Hollyhocks was
very influential in creating my painting. I made the frame out of
red oak using pegged, hand-joined, mortise-and-tenon construction
methods. I used the Japanese technique (shou-sugi-ban) of
charring and oiling the oak to finish the frame.
