"Orchard -- Early May" -- field study -- 9x12" -- oil on gessoed paper -- Margie Guyot

It's still too early for the blossoms to open on the fruit trees here in NW Michigan. I found this orchard on Maple Hill Road and loved this scene. Something very ordered, very geometric about it. The growers up here are very fastidious with their trees. They plant them in carefully laid-out grids and usually keep the ground beneath the trees free of weeds. The belief is that the weeds rob the tree roots of nutrients.

Even though no blossoms were open yet, it was such a beautiful, warm sunny day, I had to get out and paint. Loved the bright green of the grass. If you look along the upper portion of the painting, you'll see a pale greenish-gray. That is from the thousands of small branches, covered in pale green leaves that are just peeking out. The sun was striking the branches, which have a bit of a sheen to them.

I also love how thick and gnarly old apple trees can get! Each spring the trees are carefully pruned to allow for sunlight penetration into the tree. I've heard pruning should make it easy enough for a bird to fly right through the tree. Sometimes these years of pruning end up creating some unusual-looking trees!

Several beehives were about 50 feet away. With no blossoms open yet, the bees were frantically racing about, looking for something to eat. Several came close to me, buzzing around, but I knew not to be afraid. When they realized I was not a flower, they flew off.

Stay tuned for more orchards!

"Macintosh" -- plein air field study -- oil on stretched canvas -- 11x14" -- Margie Guyot

For the longest time I'd been noticing there is a certain variety of apple tree up here that has beautiful pinky-peachy tones on the branches. Apple orchards are everywhere up here, and I'd been meaning to set up my easel and paint one of these wonderful trees before the leaves and blossoms appear.

So yesterday afternoon I drove over to Friske's Farm Market, south of Charlevoix, on US 31, and asked if they minded if I painted on their property. It's always a good idea to politely ask a property owner's permission, I've found. Some people are quite touchy about somebody painting something of theirs -- even when you're merely standing on the road, not even touching their land!

Thank goodness I'd thought to bring along my Gore-tex jacket and windstopper gloves! It was about 60 degrees and sunny, but the wind ripping off Lake Michigan (about 1 mile west) was truly bone-chilling.

Smart apple-growers now keep the ground beneath the trees clear of weeds. The belief is that weeds compete for nutrients, resulting in lower apple yields. Friske's followed this practice, and underneath the trees was mostly moss. This time of the year the moss was a very interesting golden olive tone. In between the rows of trees they keep the grass neatly mowed.

As usual when I paint trees, what I love to see are the darker shadow shapes and the sunlit portions. The blue of the sky was reflected in places. Some of the branches reflected the blindingly bright light of the sun. It all depended upon their angle. It's this variation of reflected lights and shadows that give a tree painting a feel of 3-D.

I found out this tree is a macintosh.

Stay tuned for some "orchard in bloom" paintings. It might be another week or two before we see blossoms.

"Yellow Roses, Alstromeria & Baby's Breath" -- oil on canvas -- 12x9" -- Margie Guyot

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I've been very busy for the past month with change-of-season chores and getting a new car. I'm starting up a henhouse for the first time ever (a lifelong dream of mine) and there never seems to be enough hours in the day! I've learned not to despair: it just happens like this once in a while, where I get too busy to paint everyday.

I love this vase, the way it distorts the stems of the roses! Some of you may recognize the yellow-flowered vintage tablecloth. It's a favorite of mine that I like using in paintings.

Roses and other flowers are harder to paint than you'd think! All those doggone petals! You look at the flowers and think "this one will be easy" -- but once you start trying to paint them, it suddenly seems impossible. It's one of those things where you have to expect panic at first, but have to just hang in there, knowing you'll figure it out. I guess that happens a lot of the time for most artists. It's the experienced painters that know not to stop -- but to keep at it, knowing they'll get it in time.

One thing I kept in mind while painting this was to pay attention to the shadows in the blossoms. A good portion of the big, central rose was in shade. People who don't paint ("left-brainers") aren't aware of the interesting range of colors that occur when a flower is in shade. Impossible to describe in words what colors there are sometimes.