"Peony, Nigella, and Foxglove" (watercolor on paper; 8" x 8")

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Pink peonies, nigella (love in a mist), and foxgloves--all from my cottage garden--make a lovely bouquet, don't you think?  Of course, these flowers are all gone; my garden looks dreadful these days, although a reblooming iris started blooming.  Apparently, it couldn't wait until the fall.  Neither can I!

These reblooming irises are more expressive than the regular ones, but you get to enjoy them twice a year!

My New Watercolor Sketchbook (watercolor on paper; 9" x 9")

My new watercolor sketchbook

Here is my new homemade sketchbook.  It is made with Fabriano 140 lb hot press watercolor paper.  I cut the sheets into 9" × 9" squares, put my watercolor paintings as covers, had them bound at Staples.  I am now ready to go for splashing with watercolors!

I use 300 lb paper for my "serious" watercolor paintings.  Having paid top dollar for the paper, I tend to get cautious and play safe when I paint on it, whereas when I work in a sketchbook, I become experimental, loose, and playful.  So I decided to make a "serious" sketchbook with 140 lb paper so that I play around in it.  If something turns out great, I can tear the sheet off the binding, mat the painting and sell it.  Am I not ingenious, or what?

"White Lilacs and Narcissus" (oil on stretched canvas; 10" x 10" x 1 3/8")

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My days are busy keeping up with the fleeting beauty of spring flowers in my paintings, in addition to gardening and enjoying the weather!  I put white lilacs and narcissus from my garden in a painted porcelain vase and came up with this enchanting still life.  How active the background should be is the ongoing quest of mine this year; for this gentle still life, I went for a calm, smoky background.  By the way, painting lilacs is a kind of aromatherapy!

Dipping my feet in the cool creek water during the walk with my daughter. We seized the day!

"Red Camellias" (oil on linen; 8" x 8")

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Camellias of the passionate red hue!  I have a small white camellia bush that has suffered weather damage last winter.  Only few buds opened this spring.  Someday I will paint from the photo below!

A white camellia with a yellow daffodil from my garden.

The Collage of My March 2015 Paintings

The collage of My March 2015 Paintings

March is out!  It was a strangely cool March, slowing down the arrival of flowers in my garden.  Despite the uncooperative weather, I've painted many spring flowers from the last year's pictures, as you can see from the above collage.  Do you have any guess on what I will be painting this month?  Spring flowers!

"Peonies and Coreopsis" (oil on stretched canvas; 10" X 10" X 1 3/8")

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This spring has been a cool one so far and all flowers are delayed at least for a couple of weeks.  I am still obliged to paint from the last year's pictures.  I can't wait to see these lovely pink peonies and yellow coreopsis blooming in my garden

"Peony Glories" (oil on linen; 10" x 10") sold

sold

I took the reference photo for the painting at the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Prince Edward Island.  Yes, they were blooming in early July!  They were past the peak, but in my painting you can't tell that.

The first step of the transparent underpainting is finished.  

The opaque layer is down.  Now my task is to make sense of the sculptural form of the flowers.  It is not an easy job because the values are so close.  All I have to go by are the close warm/cool temperature variations.

Backlit, sun-struck flowers are beginning to emerge.

"Daffodil Season Collage" (oil and watercolor; print)

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Spring has sprung in the mid-Atlantic region.  Actually, it's more like spring has gone HOT.  It was 76 degrees yesterday.  Today's forecast is 80; tomorrow's, 85!  I fear that my daffodils will be finished by the end of the week.  Fearing such an eventuality, I was busily taking pictures of flowers from my garden yesterday when my daughter popped her head into the still life setting!

My darling daughter with spring flowers

This afternoon I am going to go over to the Tidal Basin before cherry blossoms come down as pink snow.  In the meanwhile, here is a miniature cherry blossom festival in my garden.

Mini cherry blossom festival in my garden

Collages of Spring Flowers

click here to buy a print

click here to buy a print

I am back!  What do you think of the collages of my spring flowers?  I used the free site called iPiccy.com.  Try it.  It's addictive!  The top collage doesn't show all the paintings I did for my "Spring Fever" series; the bottom one includes two additional floral paintings.  My personal preference is the top one.  How about you?

Both prints are available for purchase.  I will announce the painting to be given away tomorrow, so stay tuned!

"Wisteria Song" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 5") sold

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A graceful spray of wisteria with petite, late-blooming daffodils makes an exquisite spring bouquet.  What do you say?

If you want to win a painting from my "Spring Fever" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Dogwood and Scabiosa" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 7")

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matted size: 14" x 11"

The dogwood in the painting is the late-blooming variety with pointy petals.  Scabiosa is also called pincushion flowers.  One of the longest blooming perennials, pincushion flowers have old-fashioned charm, which I think complement the dogwood perfectly. They get their name from the shape of their flowers; don't you think they resemble little pincushions?

In case you are wondering, "Dogwood and Scabiosa" is the tenth in my "Spring Fever" series.  If you want to win a painting from the series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Magenta Tulips and Grape Hyacinths" (oil on linen; 8" x 10")

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Magenta tulips and blue-violet grape hyacinths in my garden were blooming gloriously one day; they were gone the day after I took the reference photo.  Deer ate them!

"Peony Love" (watercolor on paper; 9" x 7")

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matted size: 14" x 11"

Can you tell that I love peonies?  The fabulous spiky leaves that complement my beloved flowers so well belong to the spiderwort.

By the way, the bluish tint of the white ground is caused by the blue of the sky!  The beautiful shadows should be more purplish, but people have gone mad while trying to Photoshop a picture perfectly.  I've learned to let it go.

If you want to win a painting from my "Spring Fever" series at the end of the month, please sign in to follow my blog.  Thanks!

"Spring Bouquet" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

"Spring Bouquet"
sold

"From Spring Garden" (oil, 12" x 12")
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I painted "From Spring Garden" last spring after having taken Robert A. Johnson's still life workshop, excited at the realization that I could paint floral still lifes in oil.  I picked out three favorite spring flowers from my garden, challenging myself with some with florets--lilac and hyacinth.  I did a few more still lifes, always tormented by the conflicted desire--shall I go outside to paint flowers on such a beautiful day or stay put in my studio to learn to set up and paint still lifes?  The pleasure of companionship of fellow plein-air painters usually won out.  By late fall, the pickings from my garden were slim. Japanese anemones were the best I could do; "White Japanese Anemone" was the result.

"White Japanese Anemone" (oil, 12" x 10")
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I love flowers with multiple tiny florets. Think lilac, cherry, hyacinth, hydrangea, etc. They are hard and intimidating to paint though.  It is funny that I used the word "intimidating."  How can anybody be intimidated by such small and lovely things?  But I do.  That is why I had printed out the reference photo for "Spring Bouquet" last spring, but never got around to paint from it.  The familiar delay tactics, if you know what I mean.

Spring is just around the corner in northern Virginia, with the temperature in the 50's day after day in late January!  I finally got inspired to paint "Spring Bouquet."  The setup on the kitchen table in front of a large window was backlit by the natural light from outside.  I got rid of the window panes and trees clearly visible in the picture, and painted the daffodil first.  After taking a deep breath, I began to paint gesturally the floret of hyacinth one by one.  It went surprisingly fast!  Many initial rough-edged brushstrokes were left alone to suggest movement.  After all, the hyacinths were alive and would have moved follwing light if I had painted them from life.  I let the painting dry a little, then refined the flowers and wobbly stems in the vase. How about that!  No reason to get stymied by flowers anymore.

I took a picture of snowdrops blooming in my garden yesterday.  Do you think I will paint them soon, or sit on the picture for a year?

"From Spring Garden" (oil on linen, 12" x 12") sold

sold

This still life has three quintessential spring flowers; two of them--hyacinth and lilac--are fragrant and all three are my favorite flowers.  I have tried still life in watercolor in the past, but have found it difficult.  Sometimes I would set up floral arrangements, stare at them for a while and give up even without trying.  Especially, with the flowers with many florets like hyacinth, lilac, and hydrangea, it seemed too daunting. 

So I was being very brave when I sat down to paint "From Spring Garden."  As somebody said, die trying.  And I never heard of anybody dying while painting some flowers.  Guess what!  It wasn't that hard to paint either lilac or hyacinth.  I guess it's because oil is a forgiving medium and, as long as the paints are still wet, you can manipulate them to suggest the gesture and characteristics of different flowers.

Another concern that I had about floral still life was "what happens if the flowers die on me before I am done?".  Although it took two sessions to finish the painting above on two consecutive days, none of the flowers changed too drastically to force me to abandon the project.  I am very much encouraged with my new-found passion of still life painting and am going to go shopping for more fabrics.  Did I tell you that I sew sometimes and love to go to fabric stores?  My art just gave me a good excuse!

"Peony Season" (watercolor on paper; 6" x 6")

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Every now and then during the flowering season, I arrange flowers from my garden on a piece of white paper and take pictures for my watercolor still lifes.  I am more interested in shadows than flowers themselves.  Photographing is necessary because the shadow shapes will keep changing as the sun moves.