Art download: In praise of snowdrops

And winterberries, too.

Hello! And welcome to Dandelion Seeds, an illustrated newsletter that’s hand-painted and hand-lettered, from my desk to yours.

From the moment I got the idea for my newest illustrated essay, “Like a Garden in the Winter,” I knew I wanted to paint snowdrops.

I glimpsed them for the first time years ago, during the first winter I ever spent outside the US. After graduating from college, I moved to London for six months, and near the end of my stay, I went to Oxford for the day, on a rather frigid morning in early February.

As an English major, I was excited to spend the day chasing the ghosts of literary greats who once called Oxford home. I passed by the old stone shop where a little girl named Alice — the Alice who inspired Lewis Carroll — went often to buy sweets, and I stood in the very room inside a pub called the Eagle and Child where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien met every week to discuss their writing.

Then, just before making my way back to London, I paid a visit to Oxford’s botanical gardens. Given that it was the heart of winter and the ground was blanketed with snow, I didn’t expect to see much, and so you can imagine my surprise — my sheer delight, in fact — when I discovered the garden was filled with tiny white flowers, their drooping heads looking so much like lanterns.

I later learned they were snowdrops, and as I wrote to a friend:

“These little flowers were probably my favorite image from the entire visit. I thought they were simply magical.”

Today, I want to share some of their magic with you, too — in the form of a new art download featuring my illustration of snowdrops from “Like a Garden in the Winter.”

And in case you’d like something a little more festive for the holiday season, I created a second iPhone wallpaper with the bright red winterberries I also painted for the essay. All you need to do is click on the button below each image to download it for free — and enjoy!

With love,
Candace