I do love flowers in their natural setting more than those in a vase. This is a study in white playing with the warm and cool tones to give a natural play of light and shadow on the petals.
Tom wrote a haiku for this one that captures the essence of the moment.
delicate scent wafts
petals open to the sun
summer afternoon
image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2020 TJ Radcliffe
I painted this one about a month ago from photos I took (not this year) of a large rhododendron garden in a nearby park. I say nearby, but it would have still required a ferry ride to visit this park and we haven’t been off our small island since the shutdown started almost three months ago.
Tom just wrote an amazing poem this weekend that speaks to the times we live in as much as this painting. I feel profoundly grateful to have inspired it with my art.
storm clouds rising somewhere up ahead blossoms tossing shadowed on the wind skies are changing blue is running red searching for forgiveness for our sins in the darkness under forest cover eyes that hide from hunters passing by we hold these truths clutched to us like our mother we tell these stories hoping they're a lie raindrops splashing fat upon the flowers shaking leaves and dampening the ground summer's waking thunder tolls the hour what never has been lost cannot be found young buds open now their time has come senescent giants falling free the sun
image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) TJ Radcliffe
Even when flowers are white, they aren’t really white. There’s shades of mauve, pale blue, pale yellow etc. It is a fun exercise to decide how to give volume and a sense of the sunlight using those subtle colours. Interestingly, the buds for these white blooms were pink!
Tom’s poem captures a moment that parallels the feeling of the painting perfectly. Tom has started posting his poems on a website called Hello Poetry. Check out his poems there!
It’s quiet here beneath the waxy leaves
looking through the flowers at the sky
so changeless blue. The faintest summer breeze
stirs the rhododendrons as I lie
within the peaceful darkness, damp and cool.
Voices in the distance, kids at play,
cars along the boulevard hiss by,
furtive couples fumble down the way,
off to learn the meaning of a sigh
by the river’s isolated pool.
I close my eyes and feel the Earth beneath
the world above the universe. I fly
to distant lands where dragons form a wreath
around my life, where magic will not die,
and knights defend the helpless from the cruel.
image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) TJ Radcliffe
When I bought this bouquet, it had other colours of flowers in it as well, but I just felt like trying something more monochrome. Pretty pleased with how this turned out. Even though it’s quite a bit larger than I have been painting, I got the painting laid out and largely developed in one session and finished it up in another while the oil paint was still nice and moveable. So not quite alla prima but close.
Once again, Tom has found something profound to say about my painting – this time in haiku form.
bright white cut flowers
cut glass vase catches sunlight
mourners murmur grief
image (c) 2020 Hilary Farmer
poem (c) 2020 TJ Radcliffe
Green Tea Doodles 