Sea Cycling: A Sudden Inspiration
By Annette Bartlett-Golden
 
For days, I've been cutting out little paper fish for a new sea themed collage. In all, there are about 120 fish: red, yellow, orange, blue and silver in a variety of shapes and color combinations. I also made a sea turtle and a snorkeling cyclist, a rather strange combination, I know, for the underwater ocean scene. Brightly colored handmade, marbled, and watercolored papers with both torn and cut edges make up a coral reef. While I was working on the collage, my studio was littered with rolls and sheets of all sorts of paper and a confetti of tiny paper scraps. I also had paint pens, markers, and watercolors out at the same time for special detail work. It was a merry state of creative chaos!

This all came about because of a sudden flash of inspiration as I was driving home from teaching a collage class. During the class, I had been watching and helping students make the components of their deep sea collages. Besides basics such as coral and fish which were in the example collage I had designed for the class, students made sea turtles, starfish and even a seahorse. Seeing how they were having fun expanding the sea theme got me thinking about a composition for another deep sea collage that I wanted to create and what sorts of elements I wanted to include. Then as I was driving home, I thought about a call for art for an upcoming bicycle show that I had considered entering. Somehow the two subjects melded. Suddenly I saw the image of a cyclist riding amidst a school of fish with various kinds of corals below. That image was my inspiration for the subject of my new collage called Sea Cycling.

Most of my collages have been abstracts or loosely representational compositions that evolved during the making. Creating a representational collage based on an image I saw in my head, bigger in size than most of my other collages, with this level of detail, and a whimsical spirit is certainly something new for me. I greatly enjoyed the process, even though working with small pieces and facing unexpected challenges was intense at times, and I’m very pleased with the outcome.

It’s October and I have pink bananas growing in my garden! With its large, luxurious oval leaves and pink fruit spikes, the ornamental pink velvet banana plant Musa velutina certainly lends an exotic flare. Watching the small banana plants we were gifted with some three years ago grow bigger, flower, and develop fruit, then die back in winter and reemerge even stronger each spring has been a fascinating process. Pink flowers blossom on a flowering spike mature into small banana fruits with tough pink skins that have a pleasant velvety texture. This curious pink fruit, while very seedy and therefore considered ornamental, can be eaten and has a pleasant flavor. These bananas reach about 8 feet in height and prefer a sunny location.

While I had heard of bananas living in local landscapes, I had not seriously considered them for my own garden assuming that they would do poorly and look out of place. Now observing how they have thrived, tripled in size, and bear clusters of colorful small ornamental bananas each year, I see their potential for adding flare and interest to the garden. Combined with other similarly exotic looking plants such as red leafed canna lilies and the saucer sized flowers of hibiscus, they make a striking display.

The pink velvet banana is a type of cold hardy banana that does well up to USDA planting zone 7 when planted in full sun. While banana plants are often referred to as banana trees, they are actually the largest herbaceous perennial!  In cold climates they will die back after the first frost of winter. Caring for the bananas during winter is relatively simple, however. Before frost, cut back the stems and leaves to about 8 to 10 inches above the ground and cover with heavy mulch. In spring, after the danger of frost has passed, remove the mulch from the crown. Bananas can also be planted in pots and kept indoors during winter.

A Visit to Chanticleer Garden
By Annette Bartlett-Garden

 Intrigued by the diversity, I wondered how it was achieved. "There are seven Horticulturists, each responsible for the design, planting, and maintenance of an area. The areas are continually evolving, each with its own feel, yet joined together as one complete unit, “explains the chanticleer website. It's also helpful to understand how much work and care an outstanding garden requires and I was especially curious about this one. I learned that there are fourteen full-time year-round gardeners and groundskeepers plus six other full-time staff member.  In summer, the number of staff members doubles and includes interns and exchange gardeners. During the winter, year round staff members build and create furniture from wood harvested on the property, and construct fences, bridges, drinking fountains and other decorative touches.Throughout my visit, there were staff gardeners available to speak with about any aspect of the garden. ​

​Flowers petals in a bowl of water and a hand crafted whimsical garden gate add charm to the entry of the Teacup Garden.

​My favorite spot, and the part I found the most inspirational, is the teacup Garden. As the Chanticleer Garden website explains, “The Teacup Garden and Chanticleer Terraces feature seasonal plants and bold-textured tropical and subtropical plants. These areas change greatly from year to year. Non-hardy plants overwinter in greenhouses and basements.” It’s an area of lush, colorful plantings that use foliage as much as flowers to create vibrant borders. I especially loved the combination of banana plant leaves with the sizzling red of hibiscus flowers, and other exotic looking plants. As it happens, there are cold hardy bananas and also cold hardy hibiscus varieties. Another lovely idea for just about all gardeners were the gorgeous bowls of water with floating flower petals placed in various spots near the houses on the property. With great ideas for plant combinations and decorative touches I can put in my own garden, visiting Chanticleer was both a pleasure and an inspiration!

~To learn more about Chanticleer Garden, including plant lists and videos, go to: chanticleergarden.org

Vivid memories of rocky inlets, the glittering ocean, cool summer breezes and wide blue skies came to me suddenly like the melody from a forgotten sea shanty. Though it had been many years since I last traveled in Maine, the presence and beauty of its rocky coast left an indelible mark on my psyche. A recent family trip to visit my husband's sister and a boyhood friend happily brought me back for a few days.

Noted for its magical quality of light and primal natural beauty, Maine has long been a haven and muse for artists. The American painters Frederick Church, Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and Andrew Wyeth of past centuries were all inspired by the Maine landscape which continues to attract artists from all over the world.