Ah, April!  We're still waiting for the "lamb" promised by the end of March.  T.S. Eliot, in "The Wasteland," called April "...the cruelest month."  It's not so cruel, though, on the sunshiny days, and it's positively delightful when the trees blossom and the spring flowers bloom.  The daisy I painted is one of the birthday flowers for the month of April, and just the thought of spring flowers makes me smile.

Writers have many things to say about April, too, and some of the lines below are from some of my favorite writers:

"Spring is made of solid, fourteen-karat gratitude, the reward for the long wait. Every religious tradition from the northern hemisphere honors some form of April hallelujah, for this is the season of exquisite redemption, a slam-bang return to joy after a season of cold second thoughts."

-Barbara Kingsolver.

"Let the rain kiss you

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops

Let the rain sing you a lullaby"

-Langston Hughes.

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."

- George Orwell (1984).

"You know how it is with an April day

When the sun is out and the wind is still,

You're one month on in the middle of May."

- Robert Frost.

"Spring is a season of the soul to regain its strength."

- Lailah Gifty Akita.

April is the season of Easter and Passover.  Some of us attend religious services and enjoy a celebratory meal with friends and families.  And we celebrate being outside again after a long, long winter.  I don't think this winter was terrible in terms of weather, but it certainly was long.

What does April mean for the artists/painters among us?  It's a chance to work outside again--to cultivate the flowers that some of us will later place in our paintings.  It's an opportunity for the plein-air painters to get back outside with their easels and paints of many kinds and colors and share ideas and friendships with each other.  It's an opportunity for us painters to grab our cameras and photograph the beauty of the spring season so we have painting inspirations for work in our studios.  It's a chance to watch the birds mate and nest as they've returned from places warmer than Indiana.  I have a bird feeder directly outside of my window where I write, and I've been watching house finches fight for morsels of food.  One thing I know for sure:  If someone tells you that you eat like a bird--it's not a compliment!  Those little creatures eat constantly. 

I wish you a happy spring after our long winter filled with vaccines and booster shots and home tests and quarantines.  Be well and safe, and paint beautiful things.

But that's just my opinion. 

Pat