Sunday, July 27, 2008

Tango Anyone? (~8" x 10")

Note: This isn't a great photo and I'll update with a better one as soon as I can get a photo in daylight [cease thundershowers... before my dogs have a nervous breakdown].

Our lovely tango dancer is a huge fuchsia bloom and by the looks of things there will be many more dancers to keep her company. Hummingbirds love the combination of bright red/pink and purple and they hang around regularly in McLellan's yard where I took reference material for this painting. In fact, I had to "freeze" while painting the tiger lily sketch so I didn't scare away the hummer - it was about 5 feet from my head just hanging by the feeder. I read that hummingbirds, well all birds actually, scope out potential feeding sites from as far above as they can get. Safer there I suppose. I'm sure they were attracted by these huge fuchsia blooms.

The delphiniums in the background are a bit of my artistic license at work. Honestly, I wish I'd moved the left one over about half an inch but... too late now. I like how the delphs look kind of misty and hazy. Although I started off by painting them positive/negative alternating, I felt they were too far forward and competing with the fuchsia so I glazed them over with cobalt blue and it pushed them back nicely.

A bit of flower trivia for you - the symbolism for these two flowers is interesting. The fuchsia symbolises confiding love while the delphinium represents heaven (one source) and dolphins - root word is the Greek "delphis", or dolphin.

This Wednesday I am planning to attend a paint out at Sunshine Meadows. I'm going to carpool with a friend. I've got this paint out thing a bit more organized now - in this case I'll add a blanket so I can have short rests up there. What a place for a nap! It'll be a great day!

Enjoy your day tomorrow! I'm excited as I'm meeting several friends for a garden party - we'll see what that means... I'm taking my painting gear and I may have a chance to use it, time will tell. I hope you enjoy your Monday.

0 comments:

Post a Comment