Printable Vintage Art: A Thistle by John Crome

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
The slogan “Press On!” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.
― Calvin Coolidge

A botanical painting by John Crome (1768–1821). This one is simply titled “A Thistle” and was painted circa 1812. Oiginally found on Wikimedia here. You can download my digitally enhanced version here.

Did you know that there are more than 60 native and introduced species of thistles in Canada alone? While many of these varieties are considered noxious weeds due to their persistent and invasive properties, they are a fantastic source of food for pollinators. In my garden, I have a modestly-sized, but controlled, clump of Echinops (globe thistle) that I grow as companion plants to my Echinacea (coneflowers). Both have the same watering requirements, being very drought tolerant, and both attract pollinators by the hundreds, if not thousands, every season! The spent flowers also attract plenty of birds, particularly finches, to devour the seedheads that develop, which adds to the lively atmosphere in the back yard. Keep these spiky plants at the back of the border but within easy reach so you can dig out a handful or two should they become too unruly.

Globe thistles emerging in late spring to provide sculptural contrast in the garden
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: From the Road on the Way to Stinson Beach from Mill Valley by D. Howard Hitchcock

Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in a dark wood,
for I had wandered off from the straight path.

How hard it is to tell what it was like,
this wood of wilderness, savage and stubborn
(the thought of it brings back all my old fears),

a bitter place! Death could scarce be bitterer.
But if I would show the good that came of it
I must talk about things other than the good.
― Dante Alighieri

Their life is mysterious, it is like a forest; from far off it seems a unity, it can be comprehended, described, but closer it begins to separate, to break into light and shadow, the density blinds one. Within there is no form, only prodigious detail that reaches everywhere: exotic sounds, spills of sunlight, foliage, fallen trees, small beasts that flee at the sound of a twig-snap, insects, silence, flowers.

And all of this, dependent, closely woven, all of it is deceiving. There are really two kinds of life. There is, as Viri says, the one people believe you are living, and there is the other. It is this other which causes the trouble, this other we long to see.
― James Salter, Light Years

A vintage landscape painting of trees in a forest by David Howard Hitchcock (1861–1943) from 1910 entitled “From the Road on the Way to Stinson Beach from Mill Valley”; oiginally found on Wikimedia here. Digitally enhanced version can be downloaded as a 6” x 8” @ 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: Winter River Landscape by Adolf Kaufmann

There are such a lot of things that have no place in summer and autumn and spring. Everything that’s a little shy and a little rum. Some kinds of night animals and people that don’t fit in with others and that nobody really believes in. They keep out of the way all the year. And then when everything’s quiet and white and the nights are long and most people are asleep—then they appear.
― Tove Jansson, Moominland Midwinter

But now she loved winter. Winter was beautiful “up back” - almost intolerably beautiful. Days of clear brilliance. Evenings that were like cups of glamour - the purest vintage of winter's wine. Nights with their fire of stars. Cold, exquisite winter sunrises. Lovely ferns of ice all over the windows of the Blue Castle. Moonlight on birches in a silver thaw. Ragged shadows on windy evenings - torn, twisted, fantastic shadows. Great silences, austere and searching. Jewelled, barbaric hills. The sun suddenly breaking through grey clouds over long, white Mistawis. Ice-grey twilights, broken by snow-squalls, when their cosy living-room, with its goblins of firelight and inscrutable cats, seemed cosier than ever. Every hour brought a new revalation and wonder.
― L.M. Montgomery, The Blue Castle

A vintage landscape painting by Adolf Kaufmann (1848–1916) entitled “Winter River Landscape”; oiginally found on Wikimedia here. Digitally enhanced version can be downloaded as a 14” 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.