I’ve been keeping up with my fledgling garden through the front and back lawns this spring, and I snapped this brilliant bloom in the rose bushes this morning. I’m finding that gardening is a delightful exercise in anticipation.
I’ve been keeping up with my fledgling garden through the front and back lawns this spring, and I snapped this brilliant bloom in the rose bushes this morning. I’m finding that gardening is a delightful exercise in anticipation.
This Saturday my daughter and I stopped by opening day for the Starkville Community Market, the farmer’s market for local growers and food crafters in our area. As I mentioned last week, I’ve been privileged to do some illustration and design work for the Market again this year, and it’s been exciting to see the pieces in place at the event. We had a great time hearing live bluegrass music from the Cedar Creek Ramblers and visiting some of our favorite vendors, including Baby Girl’s kindergarten teacher (and farmer’s wife!). We picked up some locally made wheat bread, baklava, pasta, glycerine soaps, pastries and spinach. It was a wonderful outing before a day of flower gardening and preparations for my nine-year-old’s family birthday party. It’s a pleasure to buy food and treats from folks we know. I hope you’re enjoying your Monday and maybe the farmer’s market season in your own community!
We’re getting into farmer’s market season, and I’ve been very excited to work with Starkville Main Street to produce graphics and this poster for the Starkville Community Market. It was particularly fun this year because we decided to use watercolor imagery. I was able to do some hand-painted lettering and watercolor sketches of produce to use for the pieces. If you’re in the Starkville area, I hope you’ll stop by opening day for the Market this Saturday. I know it will be fun! Meanwhile, I thought I would share a few of the process illustrations for this year’s graphics. I started with a quick mock-up pencil sketch for the arrangement of the poster before painting various sketches of fruits and vegetables. For the lettering, I began with light pencil guides and very sketchy graphite letter structures on the largest elements and mostly freehand strokes on the other words. Through the wonder of Photoshop, I’ve been able to use the paintings in different variations and arrangements.
Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of Small Pond Graphics. I sometimes fancy myself a frog kisser— a documentarian coaxing poignant moments from unexpected places. This blog has evolved from those moments.
The small Pond FIELD GUIDE is part diary, part sketchbook, and part wish list – an archive of ordinary wonders. For years, this space has housed my stories – creative ideas, vintage inspiration, our forays into curious places, and the simple artifacts of quiet of conscious living. Through watercolor, photography, and illustrated tales, these pages uncover the blessing of ordinary days and the wonder found in authentic places and pursuits.
I invite you to open the boxes.
Peek into the drawers.
Rustle through the pages.
I’m honored to have you here.
© Haley Montgomery for Small Pond Graphics.
All rights reserved.
Sharing of photos and images from this site is acceptable, provided that proper crediting links are included. No downloadable content may be distributed without written permission. All art is a gift forward. Please support designers, creators and makers everywhere by respecting copyright ownership of creative property.
NEED A FROG KISSER?
Phone: 662.312.4001
Contact Haley to dive in