Tangled Garden

Recently I decided to go out locally with a friend plein air painting. We had an idea to go to a nearby farm field and paint the cows in their bucolic setting! Great idea but the farmer had moved the cows and there wasn’t one to be seen. I will spare you the details of how each place we decided to try fell flat for one reason or another. I think we were on our fifth idea – and putting miles on in our search – when my friend suggested calling a friend of hers and going to their garden. Well that turned out to be wonderful! They gave us wine and snacks and I got to paint the last hollyhocks of the season and an enormous bumblebee …a lovely afternoon of painting after all.

Bright Shadows

The California lilacs are bursting with blooms and humming with life at this time of year. Capturing the scene including a little tricolour bumblebee seemed such a natural choice …and that tiny pop of orange really makes the painting!

Damselfly

A new mini. A damselfly perched on a yellow waterlily also called “spadderdock” and a lot of other names. These flowers are not as classically lovely as the white waterlilies that I also grew up with, but there’s something fascinating about these intensely yellow blooms. I also enjoyed a relatively simple colour palette for a change!

May Blooms

This one was painted en plein air out on our deck on this lovely sunny Victoria Day long weekend. It took two afternoon sessions because of the larger than usual canvas and the quickly changing light. Luckily, it was sunny both Saturday and Sunday so I was able to continue in very similar conditions. I decided to really abstract the background elements – both the slatted table the vase was sitting on and the forest and sky beyond are represented by playing around in value tones. With the bouquet itself, I had a lot fun deciding which elements to pull out in some detail and which to make more suggestive. A very pleasant way to spend some time with the scent of lilacs wafting by…

Abstracted Bouquet

Having fun with bright colours and bold shapes …and it turned into a bouquet in a polka dotted vase. Sometimes it’s important to not plan too much and just see what happens.

Peace Blooms

I was playing Karl Jenkins “The Peacemakers” while painting this one …thinking about the world situation but wanting to have some hope for peace. Out of the darkness, new growth and blossoms that overcome the tangle of the thicket with their beauty.

Dona nobis pacem.

Abstracted Garden

Playing with colour! Warm and cool… and complementary orange and blue. As I painted, the idea of a garden started taking shape – leaf textures and floral forms. Maybe that’s a pond in the upper right. I like the feeling of this piece – calm but full of life. Looking forward to the buds in my garden showing their faces…

Shy Swallowtail

This mini was based on a photo I took visiting my parent’s home last summer. The flowers were blooming and everything was alive with pollinators of all kinds. I kind of felt that this butterfly was looking a bit askance at me but I decided it was just shy. 🙂

Sea of Roses

A perhaps even more whimsical variation on the sky flowers theme. Here the reflections of roses in the water are more like roses than the clouds are. I was trying to capture that colour in the sky when blue is just starting to fade into yellow without being really green! As with most of this series, there is a dream-like quality to the vision.

Bramble Bumble

Continuing to feel the need for a feeling of summer sunshine and warmth. This local tri-colour bumble bee is enjoying the pollen of the blackberry blossoms. Blackberries are a bit controversial here because the (now) most common variety is a non-native invasive species …but sooo delicious. The native wild ones are even better – when I can find them!

Green Tea Doodles

take some time for tea and check out my doodles

flowers