This is another of my plein air from this past summer. It was August and although the “heat dome” had passed, it was still very warm that day. So the title reflects the time of year and the heat as well as the wonderful red-orange of the cascading crocosmia. This view could only be painted while I was standing in the direct sunshine so I had to take breaks in the shade every 15 or 20 minutes. Well worth the experience …and I can still feel the heat when I look at this one.
OK, this is the third and last bumblebee of this series …but who could blame me? They are so cute and this one even has a heart on its back. I scaled down my brushes a bit to do these but you can clearly see the brush strokes because the painting is so small.
Here is Tom’s poem for this one. I think this bumblebee deserves his nap. 🙂
Not every bee’s a working worker: some like me are known to chill upon a leaf. But I’m no shirker! I just rest when all is still.
An energetic explosion of colour! These rhododendrons were glowing and backlit in a photo I took last spring. The sun was even shining through the leaves so painting it seemed like a good antidote for the dull grey days of late fall. For this painting I added Cad red to my palette – it really pops.
Tom has written lots of poems for my flower paintings by now. It’s pretty amazing that he continues to see new things and have original ideas about them to work into poems!
The limbs of planets forming
around a birthing star
glowing in the morning
turning with the bar
of dust and gas and light
that keeps the stars in line:
dying, rising, slight
perturbations fine
against a background dark
with empty deathless night.
This abstracted floral was inspired by a photo I took on a recent visit to Victoria. What amazing gardens they have at this time of year! …well from now until September really. Great gardening climate. As you can likely tell by looking at it, I took a lot of liberties painting very loosely and feeling free with it. An impression of something can feel even more real than a photograph in some ways and that’s what I am working on achieving.
Tom has written a sonnet for this one that gives more scope for thought!
This riotous intensity of life
this flowing force of beauty growing tall
this moment of reality, a slice
of time: this Garden does not fail or fall
but bursts forthright upon the worldly stage
to teach the innocent, unlearn the sage
arrest a glance and free the troubled mind
overwhelm the proud, reward the kind.
This Garden waits for all who wander lost
across the empty spaces, forests, fields,
searching for the treasure that time yields
although their lives be rough and tempest tost.
Not somewhere after death is our reward
but here and now in beauty’s soft accord.
Here’s another doodle on the same theme as last time… flowers, soft blending and exploring the relationship of colours next to and overlapping each other. Still enjoying using Procreate. In fact I have done a few more doodles but haven’t posted them yet. I will try to post another this week.
Check out this photography blog with some lovely detail shots of flowers, architecture and more.
UPDATE: Original poem from Tom in the comments! Captures the image very well – thanks Tom!
Floral embers smoulder, bursting fire
beneath the gusting winds of warming Spring
raising up the Year King on his pyre
to burn within the sacred garden’s ring
where arms of leafy green are raised up high
to welcome back the Eastern-rising sun
rebirth is in the air across the shire;
Winter’s reign at last is finally done!
So brightly burn the floral fires today
that only for a moment will they last
yet toward the Summer they will light our way
melting Winter’s grip so cold and fast.
So the Year King burns, for he is slain,
Yet all that dies will one day live again.
Green Tea Doodles 