Florals

Sometimes I do paint more than space art!

I've drawn flowers all of my life - in the margins of my notebooks at school, as a vine ring around words, and as practice paintings.   I don't know why it never occurred to me to make floral prints, but it hadn't. Some of my favorite doodles are of potted plants, leaves and flower petals.

Flowers are important to me, for the beauty and shapes, for the color.  There is something so healing about flowers, seeing them around as you drive past houses, or walking into a room and seeing an artful arrangement.  My father is an avid gardener, and though I lamented all the time spent 'working on the yard' in my youth, I am grateful for the know how that came from the experiences.  When I was growing up our yard was over half an acre big, and over the course of my childhood I cared for every inch of it, grass and flowerbeds alike.

Sometimes I wish my parents still had that house when I got married, because I would have liked it to been there, in the big yard.  But then again, my wedding wound up being in February, and I grew up in Michigan.  It probably wouldn't have been a very fun ceremony outdoors.

But I digress.  Flowers are a source of inspiration and beauty.  I like to take pictures of them, so it follows that I would like to draw them as well.  This painting is of a hibiscus, based on a photo I took in Bermuda.  I'm still working on the color, I'd like the gathered part at the stem to be a much more vibrant shade of yellow - but I like the way this came out.  The experience has led me to start a new painting of peonies, which I've been working on the lines for during the past week.

Here's to flowers, may they long bring us joy!