Printable Vintage Art: Shelling Peas by Myles Birket Foster

Shelling Peas, 19th century
by Myles Birket Foster (1825–1899)

I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

In life you have to learn to count the good days.
You have to tuck them in your pocket and carry them around with you.
So I’m putting today in my pocket and I’m off to bed.
― Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

If you like, you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting above as a high-res, printable 12” x 8” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.

When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate.
And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.
― Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet: Thoughts on Change, Grace, and Learning the Hard Way

Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Beneath the Birches by Carl Larsson

Beneath the Birches, 1902
by Carl Larsson (1853–1919)

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Beneath you birch with silver bark
And boughs so pendulous and fair,
The brook falls scattered down the rock:
and all is mossy there.
― Samuel Taylor Coleridge

When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.
The only thing that could spoil a day was people
and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits.
People were always the limiters of happiness
except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

You can download a digitally enhanced version of the vintage painting (as seen above) as a high-res 7” x 11” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Art: Portrait of a Young Woman Sitting Outdoors by Julie Volpelière

Portrait of a young woman sitting outdoors, holding a bouquet of flowers, 1822
by Julie Volpelière (1780–1842)

She cast her fragrance and her radiance over me. I ought never to have run away from her... I ought to have guessed all the affection that lay behind her poor little stratagems. Flowers are so inconsistent! But I was too young to know how to love her...
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Some women feel the need to act like they're never scared, needy or hurt; like they're as hardened as a man. I think that's dishonest. It's ok to feel delicate sometimes. Real beauty is in the fragility of your petals. A rose that never wilts isn't a rose at all.
― Crystal Woods, Write Like No One is Reading

If you like, you can download my digitally enhanced version of the painting above as a high-res, printable 4” x 5” @ 300 ppi JPEG here.

Spring drew on...and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
Photo © FieldandGarden.com. All rights reserved.

Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Printable Vintage Garden Illustration: The Beautiful Little Greenhouse by T.J. Beyer

“It always amazes me to look at the little, wrinkled brown seeds and think of the rainbows in 'em,” said Captain Jim. “When I ponder on them seeds I don't find it nowise hard to believe that we've got souls that'll live in other worlds. You couldn't hardly believe there was life in them tiny things, some no bigger than grains of dust, let alone colour and scent, if you hadn't seen the miracle, could you?”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne's House of Dreams

If you live in the dark a long time and the sun comes out, you do not cross into it whistling. There's an initial uprush of relief at first, then-for me, anyway- a profound dislocation. My old assumptions about how the world works are buried, yet my new ones aren't yet operational.There's been a death of sorts, but without a few days in hell, no resurrection is possible.
― Mary Karr, Lit

An early 19th century (from 1810) illustration of a beautiful little greenhouse with pots of spring flowers stacked on shelves beside it, waiting to be planted in the garden. 6” x 8” @ 300 ppi JPEG without a watermark here.


Digitally enhanced reproductions of public domain fine art are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Vintage Art Appreciation: June by Fidelia Bridges

June, 1876
by Fidelia Bridges (1834 - 1923)

And since all this loveliness cannot be Heaven, I know in my heart it is June.
― Abba Woolson

June falls asleep upon her bier of flowers;
In vain are dewdrops sprinkled o'er her,
In vain would fond winds fan her back to life,
Her hours are numbered on the floral dial.
― Lucy Larcom

Spring being a tough act to follow, God created June.
― Al Bernstein

So sweet, so sweet the roses in their blowing,
So sweet the daffodils, so fair to see;
So blithe and gay the hummingbird a-going
From flower to flower, a-hunting with the bee.
― Nora Perry, In June