A Little Lemon Tree, House & Garden UK, and One Very Special Cover
There are some moments in an artist’s career that feel especially meaningful, and seeing one of my paintings in House & Garden UK is certainly one of them.
My small Lemon Tree II painting was recently featured in the magazine, and as the October issue begins making its way onto stands, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the cover.
A horse.
For anyone who knows me, it almost feels too fitting.
So much of my life and the things I love seem to find their way into my work eventually: horses, gardens, travel, beautiful interiors, long tables, flowers, sunshine, and the little details that make a home feel collected and personal. To have my artwork included in a publication that celebrates so many of those same things feels incredibly special.
And I love that the painting they featured is Lemon Tree II.
It isn’t one of my enormous canvases. It is a small, joyful 8 x 10 painting of a lemon tree, filled with the bright yellow and fresh color that have become such a recognizable part of my work.
This painting was inspired by the lemon trees I saw in the South of France. There was something about them that stayed with me: the color, the abundance, the way they seemed to make even the simplest corner feel beautiful.
I haven’t made it to the Amalfi Coast yet, but in a funny way, this little painting has made me want to go even more. There is something about lemons, Mediterranean gardens, old walls and sunlight that I keep coming back to, both in the places I love and in the things I want to paint.
That feeling became the beginning of an entire collection.
I started painting lemons because I wanted to bring some of that sunshine home. Paintings that could live in a kitchen, tucked into a gallery wall, beside a stack of books, or in a room full of beautiful things collected over time. Art doesn’t always have to command the entire room. Sometimes a small painting can be the thing that gives a room its personality.
Maybe that is why seeing this particular little lemon tree in the pages of House & Garden means so much to me.
I came to painting after spending much of my career behind a camera, and the past few years have been an unexpected and incredibly rewarding creative chapter. Every painting that leaves my studio ends up becoming part of someone else’s home and story. Watching the work travel farther than I ever imagined, even across the Atlantic and into the pages of a British magazine I have admired for years, is something I don’t take lightly.
And then there is that horse on the October cover.
It feels like a tiny wink from the universe.
Horses and art. Gardens and interiors. A little lemon tree. Somehow, it all ended up together in one place.
I couldn’t have planned it better.
Lemon Tree II, the original painting featured in House & Garden UK, is currently available, along with the rest of my House & Garden collection.
[VIEW HOUSE AND GARDEN Collection]
Thank you, as always, for following along, collecting my work, sharing it with friends, and allowing these paintings to become part of your homes.
There is so much more to come.
Love,
Arden
On location at Le Clos Saint-Estève, Provence, France
Photo by Audrey Paris Photo