"White Peony Glory" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12") sold

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This painting was forced on me. I didn't want to paint it. I protested that it was impossible. But my client insisted that it should and could be done. So, willy nilly, I transformed a rectangular painting in watercolor into a square one in oil. I rather like the result. How about you?

"White Peony Rhapsody" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 10")

"White Peonies" (oil on stretched canvas; 9" x 12")

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Peonies are not blooming yet, but one can always get ready for their heady perfume by painting them!

"Gardenia Love" (watercolor on paper; 6.5" x 9") sold

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Gardenias, I love the perfumed, white flowers!

"Spring Fresh Lilies of the Valley" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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I have these dainty and fragrant lilies of the valley in my garden.  In a few weeks, they will bloom, nestled in their lush green foliage.

"White Pansies in the Sun" (oil on linen; 4" x 5") sold

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I love pansies. They are one of the few hardy and dependable plants with a very long season. Their cheerful faces greet us during the entire duration of the cool season for months. In this small painting, a group of white pansies glow in the morning sun.

"Hydrangea and White Picket Fence" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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Hydrangeas are blooming!  There is something irresistible about hydrangeas AND a white picket fence.  They pull heartstrings as nothing else.  So romantic and nostalgic.  It doesn't matter whether your mother's garden had these.  I do have a white picket fence; I have a small pink hydrangea bush.  But they are separated by a lawn and driveway!

So, during the hydrangea season, I haunt the Green Spring Garden's Park in Alexandria, VA, which is just a stone's throw from my place.  The gazebo, which I have painted a gazillion times, is surrounded by a white picket fence.  When hydrangeas bloom, it looks even prettier.  For the past few weeks I checked the growth of the hydrangeas several times to make sure that I wouldn't miss them at their peak.  My patience was rewarded at last.  You will be seeing more of hydrangea paintings!  

By the way, the winner of the print of "Summer Garden" is Sandra Land. Congratulations!  I would like to thank 50 fans and followers who participated in the drawing.  I will be giving away an original painting in early July.  So stay tuned!

Do you remember this gazebo?

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

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Reference photo

All this talk of grays got to me.  I decided to go crazy and do something wild.  What if I use cadmium red straight out of the tube to contrast with the grays on the white iris blooming in my neighborhood?  How do you like my wild painting?

"First Snowdrops" (oil on linen; 7" x 7") sold

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I first blocked in the mulched ground and flowers.

The delicate flowers are now fully developed.

Snowdrops are one of the first flowers to bloom in early spring. I took the reference photo for the painting on February 12, and that was a few days after I spotted them in my garden.  That's pretty early!  I painted the snowdrops in oil, because I thought they wouldn't show at all against the white of the watercolor paper.

As you can see, I posted two step-by-step pictures.  After the second stage, the rest--the spiky leaves and a suggestion of the mulch--went pretty fast.  Very relaxing after working for a few days in watercolors, which require a methodical, time-consuming approach!

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!

"Flight of Orange Butterflies" (oil on canvas; 10" x 10") sold

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The powerful storm of last Friday night left my neighborhood without power for four days.  The temperature stayed high in the 90's day after day.  It was relentlessly hot and sunny outside; it was depressingly hot and dim inside.  My family remained cheerful despite the outrage, taking many, air-conditioned, drives in the area to see which streets got power back and to check out new eateries to dine out at.  We even had a tire blow up during a drive!  When it rains, it pours.

With the insufficient light and intolerable heat in my studio, I didn't feel up to painting.  But I feel irritable and unfulfilled if I don't paint for several days.  So I sat in front of my easel in two mornings, perspiring profusely.  "Flight of Orange Butterflies" is the result of my persistence.  It has the intense, tropical feel, don't you think?

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

"Lily of the Valley" (oil on linen; 10" x 8")

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Reference photo

I love the lily of the valley.  The tiny nodding bells of this shade-loving plant have the enchanting fragrance that only those who take trouble to get down on their knees to smell them know.  Indeed, I had to practically lie on my stomach to take the above reference photo.  They grow under the yews, holly, and azaleas right outside of my front door.  It took ten long years to spread as far as you can see in the picture below and not all the stems have buds.  Alas, they seem to prefer a more open shade.

My treasure trove of the lily of the valley

I am doing a series of garden flowers in the natural setting this year, so I painted "Lily of the Valley" to show how this dainty plant grows in my garden.

"First Snowdrops" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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Reference photo

I did it!  Instead of sitting on a nice photo forever, I made a painting out of it right away.  Aren't you proud of me?  As I mentioned in an earlier entry, I took the above picture last Sunday.  The first sighting of these delicate white flowers always signals the imminent arrival of spring.  However, the joy has been considerably marred by the unseasonably warm weather we've been "blessed" with this winter.  Today's forecast in northern Virginia is in the upper 60's! 

Some people are basking in the warmth; others hate it, sad at the want of the fluffy snow.  I happen to live with two of the latter.  I don't mind the spring-like temperature.  But I am sore at the missed opportunity to paint snow on location as my plein-air friends had vowed to do so this winter.  Oh, well.

"Flight of Fancy" (oil on linen; 7" x 7") sold

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Today is the one year anniversary of my blog.  What a year it has been!  It was truly a leap of faith for me to undertake the responsibility of writing a blog.  At the beginning, I was probably the only person who read my blog.  These days, who knows?  I have a few friends who keep up with it; beyond them, I have no idea.  Someday I may develop a big following.  For now, I am content with my small, but loyal readership. 

Going with the concept of a leap of faith, I am sharing "Flight of Fancy" with my readers today.  It is based on a photo I found in a shoebox the other day.  I took it nine years ago when my daughter was still in preschool, at a beautiful public park called Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD, to which two moms and three preschoolers took a field trip. 

They were having a special exhibit of a butterfly show.  Hundreds of exotic butterflies fluttering about everywhere was a sight to behold.  I somehow captured these two orange butterflies in the frame: one in flight, the other in a brief moment of stillness.  I love the juxtaposition of oranges and violets--a color combination I rarely use, but now I will.

Thank you for reading my blog.  Happy Anniversary!

"White Peonies" (oil on linen, 12" x 9") sold

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Yesterday I went to Green Spring Gardens Park to paint, taking advantage of the fourth-straight beautiful day.  I was drawn to these delicate white peonies that just started blooming.  Most of the flowers were in the shadow, only the top right parts being sun-struck.  Normally I would have painted the shadowed areas much darker.  But with so much reflected light bouncing off the paved path to the flowers, it would have destroyed the fresh sunny feeling completely if I had done so. 

I wish you had been there with me to enjoy a perfect weather.  You would also have seen all those delicate colors in the white flowers--pinks, mauves, blues, pale yellows, olives, etc.  It was unbelievable.  So much so that, it was actually hard to organize the dark/light masses.  When you see so many colors, you become seduced by them.  But without the form, all the colors in the rainbow wouldn't do you any good.  For "White Peonies," I kept the background of foliage in the medium dark tone.  I think I like this way better.  What do you think?

"Spring Bouquet with Azaleas" (oil on linen, 14" x 11") sold

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I thought I would paint some azaleas before they die out.  What other flowers would complement them?  I found chives, sweet williams and blue pincushion flowers.  After the latest still life project, I learned my lesson, so this painting is smaller, the vase a simple blue mug, and the cloth just a backdrop.  As the azaleas were already showing signs of stress, I also took a picture as a backup.

I zoomed in to fill the canvas with the setup.  The design employs a classic cross shape.  The white azaleas in the shadow had to be repainted a couple of times so that they were keyed correctly.

"Dogwood Sky" (oil on linen, 11" x 14") sold

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Do you remember the old days when we used films for the cameras and brought them for development to grocery stores and drugstores?  I am sure you have stacks of shoe boxes full of pictures that never made to the album we were supposed to work on rainy days.  They got forgotten and became history.  These days, we have megabytes of photos eating up our computer spaces and collecting virtual dust.  Facebook helps somewhat, but do you really look at your friends' album postings with care?

The other day I found a photo of my neighbor's dogwood flowering in an old box and decided put it to a good use.  Dogwoods are common where I live.  They are not yet blooming, but when they do, boy, they brighten up neighborhoods with their white and pink flowers.  I remember reading somewhere that they are a very old specie that was around the times of dinosaurs. 

Dogwood flowers, despite their prehistoric pedigree, have a contemporary sculptural look, which I like.  Against a cloudless blue sky, they are simply stunning.