Alder Rose

For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. James 1:3 NLT This picture could almost be called a "prequel" to my Acrewood Art wildflowers. Even before we knew there would be an Acrewood, I was admiring this wild rosebush and using it as a landmark. When Kathy and I went to look at the property before we bought it, we used this wild rose as our landmark to know where to pull over and hike into the woods. After we purchased the property and chose where to build the house, we decided the driveway should begin right across the road from the wild rose. (See the Story page for more on the Acrewood story.) That was over 30 years ago. The rose has grown to the top of an old redwood stump and then on up into the alder trees. Each year, it is a beautiful sign that tells us when spring is nearly here. By summer, we enjoy the blossoms in the alder trees every day as we pull out of our driveway. I enjoyed working on this picture. I had just finished three buildings, Lavender Joy, Cape Meares Lighthouse, and Bistro Gardens (a commissioned piece hanging in Crescent City in the restaurant of the same name), and I was ready to do something with NO straight lines in it. It was time to start watching for the wild roses to bloom and I had been putting off drawing them for long enough. I had been collecting pictures for several years, but somehow just never got around to drawing them. Getting the color just right was the challenge on this one. I used quite a variety of my colored pencils!

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