Artist Kim Cunningham of Hancock describes her newest project, “In the Garden,” as a “a life event that turned into a calendar.”

“During COVID, in June 2020, I said to my friend Evelien, ‘Let’s go over and sketch at the Elliots’,” Cunningham recalled. “It’s a huge garden, and we could all be far apart and felt very safe, and the Elliots were very happy to have us there painting, so we just kept going back.”

Cunningham, who lives in the center of Hancock, and her husband Scott have been acquainted with Bill and Eileen Elliot for many years.

“We actually helped them build their house back there in the woods,” Cunningham said. “They had a little chainsaw mill, and my husband and I helped them carry beams in when they were building their post-and-beam house.”

The result of Cunningham’s many hours sketching in the garden is a calendar of sketches, watercolors and block prints based on the Elliots’ botanical garden and other sites in Hancock.

“The Elliots are such incredible botanists and have so many plants. We would focus on these really tiny details and they would say ‘Huh, we didn’t even know we had that plant,’” Cunningham said.

The Elliots, who were inspired by Scott and Helen Nearing’s “Good Life” movement, live off-grid, grow most of their own food and are almost entirely self-sufficient. Their gardens have been featured on national Garden Conservancy tours and in multiple publications.

“Their garden is absolutely incredible,” Cunningham said. “They have specimen trees. They have perennials. They have an enormous vegetable garden.”

“In the Garden” shows the process of Cunningham’s work from initial sketches to watercolors and prints. Cunningham, a lifelong artist, has lived in Hancock for 45 years. Since retiring from her career as a professional illustrator for Brookstone, Cobblestone, EMS and other local businesses, she has enjoyed “getting to just exactly what I want.”

Cunningham is also the author of a book, “Block, Paper, Chisels,” which illustrates her process as an artist, and has produced three previous calendars with different themes.

“This calendar is very dear to my heart. Some wonderful things came out of the pandemic,” Cunningham said

“In the Garden” is available from Bauhan Publishing, at Toadstool Books, the Hancock Market and the Monadnock Center for History and Culture.

For information go to bauhanpublishing.com/?s=kim+cunningham.