"Spring Wildflowers" (watercolor on paper; 12" x 9")

"Spring Wildflowers" (12" x 9")

Let's take a walk on a beautiful spring day in the park. This is the Virginia nature trail at the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA. I see blue woodland phlox and golden ragwort blooming. Dappled light on the path is as delightful!

"Spring Wild Flowers" Reference

Dappled light is the spotted light which comes through gaps in a tree canopy and produces the feeling of light and the airy, cheerful mood in a landscape and cityscape. I am teaching a in-studio workshop at the Art League School in Alexandria, VA on December 4 and 5, 2021.  We are going to create these happy paintings together through the mastery of edges, greens, and shadow colors! 

 

"Spring Woods" (oil; 10" x 8") sold; "Spring Woodland" (oil; 14" x 11")

"Spring Woods" (oil, 10" x 8")
sold

"Spring Woodland" (oil, 14" x 11")
click here to buy

When trees start budding, they turn yellow green.  Leaves are not yet big, so they don't cast heavy shade.  Walk in the early spring woods.  It's airy and bright; it's an enchanting place!  Both paintings are based on a real place--the Virginia native plant trail in the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  I haunt the park in early spring, which has always been my favorite time of the year.

Did you notice a red bridge up a small stream in the first painting?  Many flowers populate the second painting, In the distance, one can see the pink redbud in bloom. In the middle ground, the dainty white bells of the common silverbell arc gracefully above the carpet of yellow woodland poppies.  I think I captured in both paintings the light-filled atmosphere of springtime in the woods.

"Spring Woodland" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

sold

Reference photo for "Spring Woodland"

Uncommonly pretty "common silverbell" bush

Double-flowered bloodroot

Woodland poppy

Virginia bluebell

Jacob's ladder

Foamflower

Trillium

Dwarf larkspur

Redbud

Lately I have been haunting Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  I was afraid in particular that, if I were idle, I would miss the dazzling explosion of spring wildflowers along the Virginia native plant trail, as spring was zipping us by stunningly fast.  Early spring flowers that should be still with us are all gone; azaleas and lilacs are already blooming.  For two weeks, I went to the garden park every other day; I was "casing the joint," so to speak.  I was there on Tuesday afternoon.  Woodland poppies and Virginia bluebells were finally blooming in plenty.  But the sun was on the wrong side.

So I went back on Thursday morning.  It was a partly sunny, partly cloudy day--not an ideal condition for photography.  Fortune, however, favors the persistent and determined.  As I entered the wooded trail, the sun came out to stay.  Wow!  I saw several plants which I have never seen.  The park authorities have been busy and kind with labels, but they couldn't possibly tag all the clumps of ground-hugging wildflowers.  Alas, some lovely flowers will remain nameless for me.

A couple of years ago, I had painted woodland poppies--"Woodland poppies in Spring Woods."  I wanted to paint them again, hopefully better this time.  "Spring Woodland," however, turned out to be a different sort of painting.  The cheerful, bright yellow, woodland poppies are there, of course.  But they are just one of the many flowers that populate this airy, light-filled, enchanting, spring woodland.  In the distance, one notices the pink redbud in bloom.  In the middle ground, the dainty white bells of the common silverbell arc gracefully above the carpet of yellow poppies.  In the reference photo, I noticed other tiny flowers on the ground as well, which I decided to edit out.  I think I captured in the new painting the atmosphere of springtime in the woods.  What do you say?

"Woodland Poppies in Spring Woods" (oil, 20" x 16")
sold