275 Roses: Finding Joy in the Garden
Cathy Pettigrew is one of our many community members who has been inspired by our local parks to create beautiful art. During the Covid-19 pandemic, she decided to challenge herself to paint a new rose at the Avery Park Rose Garden every day for 10 days.
Since then, Cathy has become one of our many loyal visitors to the rose garden, and has made 275 paintings of the roses.This is her story.
"The idea of painting roses came to me during the first summer of Covid when my household was in complete isolation. We wore masks outside, and no one had entered our house for many months.
In July, as a challenge to my isolation and fears, I asked myself to visit Avery Park here in Corvallis for ten days and paint a rose in watercolor every visit. At the beginning, I doubted I would complete this challenge, but it did get me out the door. I trundled off with a folding camp chair, a tiny table, some watercolor paper, paint brushes, a pencil, an eraser, and a flask of water. That was the beginning.
Immediately, upon entering the garden, my mood lifted in response to the pure light and color of the flowers, and the fragrance of hundreds of roses. I noticed the dappled shade and light of the redwoods surrounding and protecting the peace of the garden. It was soothing and inspiring. I slowly walked through the rows of beckoning flowers and finally stopped in front of a rose called Sunshine Daydream. She was a large-bloomed, pure yellow rose and bursting with health that summer of 2020. She was full of blooms and her yellow flowers contrasted with her dark green, glossy foliage. I sat my chair down before a single rose that was at my eye level. I surrendered to that one rose, to let it guide my work, first with pencil and then with paint.
When I finished, I felt a rush of gratitude and joy that the roses were there, waiting to be loved, seen, and experienced with all the senses, despite the fear and isolation that was working through our lives in those early days of the pandemic. And now, six years later, I have completed 275 paintings of the many different varieties in the Avery Park Rose Garden collection. They were mostly painted in 2020 and 2021, but I revised and repainted many over the next several years as new varieties were planted, or because I felt moved to try again and better express what that particular rose says and feels like to me.
As I painted, folks stopped by to stand and have a look. At first, we all wore masks to safely speak to each other, and then later we happily spoke bare-faced. There were tai chi practitioners on the nearby lawn on Tuesday mornings, there were preschoolers, and there were older children on bicycles wandering the paths through the garden. I encountered many babies in strollers who were often lulled to sleep as they were paraded through the colors and fragrances. People had picnics, drum circles, and study groups. There were surprise encounters among old friends. And always, in good weather, there was at least one person sitting on a bench reading. It was a cavalcade of humanity, but even the visiting dogs appeared to respect and enjoy the beauty.
During one fall, the parking lot was filled with refugees from the fires that were raging nearby. One morning, after days of heavy smoke, the roses were covered in ash. After last blooms in late fall, many of the roses began to produce gorgeous rose hips, and there were always a few special rosebushes that bloomed around Christmas. How could one not love such a generous place and such generous flowers? These paintings are in a sense my gift to them, and to the many faithful people who envisioned, planted, and maintained these roses for so long. Of course, my words can’t fully express any of this, nor can art. Art only points at, or interprets the ineffable."
