Two Painter's Gardens 

"For me a picture has to be something pleasant, delightful and pretty. Yes, pretty. There are enough unpleasant things in the world without us producing more." 

Pierre-Auguste Renoir 

"I want people to feel joy from my pictures. My garden is my palette and I plant flowers so I can pick them and paint them."

Alyson Spooner 

Around 1892, the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir developed rheumatoid arthritis, eventually forcing him to move to the dry Mediterranean coast. Renoir remained painting during the last twenty years of his life, even though wheelchair-bound and with his movement severely restricted. Over time he developed progressive deformities in his hands and rigidity of his right shoulder, requiring him to adapt his painting technique. In the advanced stages of his arthritis, he painted by having a brush strapped to his paralyzed fingers. Despite everything, Renoir produced works of great beauty and affirmed the pleasure of being alive. 

A century later my sister Allyson Spooner, also a painter, and like Renoir, a sufferer of a restrictive degenerative illnesses, has also been forced to adapt to cope with physical restrictions and pain. Like Renoir she draws inspiration and comfort from her garden, producing paintings of power and vibrancy from the colours of her garden.  
The juxtaposition of both painters across time and space speaks both to the power of will in defeating disability but also the transforming power of the search for natural beauty.