Rainy day? Sunny day? No matter, Brookside Gardens - a public Montgomery Country park in Wheaton, MD - is a great place to get inspired to create new textile designs! The park is a short car drive from my home so I make it a point to visit it several times a year to see how it changes with the seasons. Now is a great time to go for two reasons.
First, an exhibition of butterflies is open until September 2016. And what a fun exhibition! I love butterflies and the beauty of their wings never ceases to amaze me. I take photos - primarily closeups so that I can review these and use the imagery in my textile design. Take at the examples below - aren't the textures and color combinations lovely?
First, an exhibition of butterflies is open until September 2016. And what a fun exhibition! I love butterflies and the beauty of their wings never ceases to amaze me. I take photos - primarily closeups so that I can review these and use the imagery in my textile design. Take at the examples below - aren't the textures and color combinations lovely?
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Second, Brookside Gardens changes through the year and there is always something to see when it comes to flowers. I stopped by not too long ago - it was raining and the rain drops added striking ambiance to the variety of colors and shapes flowers come in. So, put on your walking shoes and enjoy them too!
 |  |  |  |
When something catches my eye and interest, I rarely let it go. Flowers are one of my favorite sources of inspiration and as you can see below, it is a lot of fun to create textiles based on my strolls through public parks.
 Photograph of leaves altered in a computer program and turned into a textile for scarf |  Photograph of a bloom altered in a computer program |  Watercolor drawing of a flower turned into a textile for scarf |
Do you paint? Do you design textiles? Or, are you just drawn to nature as much as me?Then, don't hesitate to pay a visit to Brookside Gardens! I promise you won't be disappointed.