Spooky Shoves from the Cosmos

Have you ever felt like you were getting shoved by a great cosmic hand? Lately, I have.  When I was a kid in high school, I took oil painting classes from a woman who was a friend of my parents. I loved working in oils, but I also messed around with watercolors.

Some of the pieces I did were water colored flowers, as if they were botanical prints. I've been trying to find a photo of one.  My mom has a ton of the paintings...and I think I may have one of a violet around here someplace...but I'll have to show you that another time.   My oil teacher kept on encouraging me to do more with the water colors.  When I graduated from high school, she gave me water color brushes and a book on watercolors.

Most of you are probably aware of my gardening passion.  But, I also grew up on a farm and my brother, brother-in-law and my sister-in-law all went to school to be foresters.  My sister has a degree in botany, so growing things and plants as well as their parts, habits, etc. were always part of the family.

It is little wonder that some of my quilts have botanical themes.  For the sketchbook challenge, the photo I uploaded a very brief sketch of a path along a birch stand from my memory of what they looked like from my childhood in Michigan.

I have been struggling with the Sketchbook challenge...and imagine my surprise when I found that I had won Botany for the Artist by Srah Simbley.  as donated by Tania Marien for Art Plantae.

So...I'm wondering...is this just another cosmic push?  I asked Sue Bleiweiss how winners were selected...and she said that they were picked at random and she just filled them by going down the list.  Hmm.  Here's the list of June prize winners and links to their sketches.

And here is my sketch.

jun749 Birchwood path, a photo by anonygoose42 on Flickr.