"Hydrangea Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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I realized that I haven't painted hydrangeas at all this year.  That's won't do!  I pulled out a picture I took last year and went to work.  Fresh as the morning dew, white hydrangeas bloom against a white picket fence.  Ah, the glory of hydrangeas!

I quickly established the value pattern with transparent paints.

I started laying down opaque paints on the background, flowers, and leaves.

"Sunny Hydrangea Garden" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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I have a soft spot for hydrangeas.  Their huge heads of pastel florets that grace gardens in late spring tug at my heartstrings as few other flowers do.  Now the weather has turned chilly, the image of a sunny garden with hydrangeas abloom is perfect to lift my spirit.

"Summer Garden with Hydrangea" (oil on stretched canvas; 12" x 12") sold

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Before

Something about "Summer Garden with Hydrangea" bothered me.  It felt like a faded old picture.  I decided to rescue a painting nobody seemed to care for.  I punched up the darks, got rid of the dominant sap greens, and played up the violet-yellow green complementary color scheme.  My new summer garden painting looks kissed by the sun, don't you think?

"Hydrangea Garden" (oil on linen; 10" x 8") sold

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"Hydrangea Garden" in the original state

Hydrangea and astilbe in a summer garden by a white picket fence.  Perfect! Unfortunately, my first try was so chalky that I almost scraped the painting off.  The chalkiness was caused by all the "grays" I used at the block-in stage.  That's the trouble with using too much white paint, because these muted, grayed colors are made with lots of white.

Do you remember my experience during Gregory Packard's workshop in May?  When one mixes primary, secondary and tertiary colors with white, colors become "duller," but also more nuanced.  I am still following his example, mixing big batches of "grays" before starting a painting, which I continue to use for the next painting or two.  As you can see in the above example, I have yet to master the fine line between "sophisticated" and "chalky".

I let "Hydrangea Garden" dry and went back with darks made without white paint.  I painted lighter leaves on top of the dark passage and punched out sun-lit petals and creamy astilbe.  Do you agree that I saved the painting from chalkiness?

"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?

"Green Spring Day" (oil on linen; 8" x 8") sold

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The gazebo at the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA

There were three of us painting together on this glorious spring day!

"Green Spring Day" blocked in with transparent paints.

"Green Spring Day" further developed.

On the morning of the May Day, I received a tempting email from a painting buddy. She and another mutual friend were going out to the Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  She invited the members of the Art League Plein Air Painters to join them.  I was torn.  After three days of rain, it was sunny again.  But I was going to stay home and do things around the house.  What to do?

I couldn't resist the prospect of the plein air painting fun with friends on such a fine day.  It's been almost a year since I painted outside.  Despite the winds, chilly air, and numerous chatty onlookers, we enjoyed our outing thoroughly and vowed to go out more often this year.

As I have been meaning to do a series of spring garden paintings for May, "Green Spring Day" seems like the perfect piece to kick off my May Challenge--"Spring Garden"!

"Rose Arbor" (oil on linen; 8" x 10")

"Rose Arbor"
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"White Picket Fence" (oil, 11" x 14")
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"Summer Garden" (oil, 10" x 10")
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"Victorian House" (oil, 11" x 14")
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Some paintings evoke strong feelings of nostalgia and longing.  Perhaps it is a porch, a rose arbor, or a white picket fence.  One wants to step into them and become part of the care-free place and time that these paintings promise.

"Hydrangea and Picket Fence" (oil on linen; 6" x 8") sold



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Reference photo

I love hydrangea.  The Chinese characters for this multi-colored flower mean "water chrysanthemum."  Isn't it interesting?  I guess the name has something to do with its cool palette, which ranges from blue, mauve, violet to yellow green.  Yesterday, I went over to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA to take pictures of hydrangea bushes.  I have a couple of them blooming now in my garden; one is so enormous that it should be classified as a tree!  But neither is near a charming picket fence.

Ideally, I should have painted them on location, as I have done last year, when I painted "White Picket Fence".  But I knew better.  The picket fence surrounds the gazebo at the park, which attracts a lot of small children for play.  A few minutes of solitude in the hydrangea heaven was soon distrupted by the invasion of three kids with their moms.  I myself used to take my daughter there for fresh air and exercise when she was a preschooler.  So it was time to pack up.  I painted "Hydrangea and Picket Fence" in my studio, wishing I could see the colors in the shadow better.  Oh, well.

"White Picket Fence" (oil, 11" x 14")
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'White Picket Fence" (oil on linen, 11" x 14") sold

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Sara during the group critique session

A hot day!  Today Sara Poly's plein-air class went to Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  I knew exactly what I was going to paint--hydrangeas against the white picket fence.  I had unsuccessfully tried the same subject twice last year, and was smarting from my failures.  I had scores to settle, so to speak.  I settled comfortably in the gazebo, which you can see from the above photo (say hi to my teacher, Sara, who is holding my painting during the lunch/critique session).  Everything was going swimmingly until I was mobbed.

I can't say I am a veteran plein-air painter--I have been at it only for two years.  Still, I had experienced my share of the usual difficulties, such as bugs, winds, heat, coldness, noise, crowds, etc.  An entire class of second-graders on a field trip decided to take shade and have lunch in the gazebo!  This was new.  My things got knocked over; I was pushed over; and several children became art critics.  What could I do?  I turned into a painting stone, completely ignoring the goings-on around me.  My art class had to wait for our turn until the kids left, and saw everything.  They shook their heads; some chuckled.

Considering the duress under which I had to work, I think the painting turned out well.  The class--my class--who have become good, fair critics, gave me an excellent advice about the big, trapezoid-shaped brick patio.  It had to lie flat and be broken up somehow.  So I introduced the wooden board leading into the picture on the far right and cooled the top portion so that it would recede.  What a day!