Country Garden Favourite

Country Garden Favourite is a traditionally painted watercolour of hollyhocks.

Hollyhocks and mallow were a couple of my mother’s favourite flowers. And I guess, seeing them through her eyes as a child helped me to gain an appreciation for them as well. I always associate them with an old fashioned country garden.

I truly love these blooms for their beauty and the nostalgia.  No wonder I love to paint them. They bring me back to Cape Breton Good memories.  Salty air. Sunshine.  Wonderful memories of a place that was truly wonderful to be a child in.

The beauty of blue

There is another flower that takes me back there  as well – wild blue flax.  This past summer, I saw it growing in PEI.  I was so happy to see them.  The colour is amazing. Speaking of blue I knew when I started this painting that I wanted to paint the background as sky blue, rather than the background in my reference photos.

The background in the photos was rather dull and I wanted this painting to be crisp and to feel like a warm summer’s day.  A really cool page came up in Wikipedia.  So many shades of blue.  So many shades of sky.

Change of plans

Originally my plan was to do this painting as a poured watercolour.  I changed my mind for a few reasons.  One I was running out of masking compound and two, I wanted to keep the petals delicate and soft.  Pouring can give you hard edges.  There is a way around that, but it requires applying the mask on damp paper.  And maybe three, I often like to draw as I go.  When you pour it is much easier to have your drawing mapped out.  It is really easy to get lost inn the pouring process without a careful rendering.

Hope you enjoy this painting as much as I enjoyed working on it.