Hydrangeas, too, are blooming in the garden. I painted these ones en plein air but they were still in their pots. Later, I faithfully planted them but should not mislead you as to what they look like now; only in August do I think to myself: "Really should have added copper sulphate this spring." I am making progress, however. Just this winter I read somewhere that the phrase "blooms on new wood" applies to hydrangeas and simply means that they should be severely pruned in fall or spring, or their flowers become shrunken, like little mummified heads, on last year's branches. I went at them with a vengeance this spring and they obviously thrive on abuse, fat-headed again, but still pale.
Just to be clear, I have no intention of ever painting hydrangeas again. (A friend has been trained to remind me: "Don't ever paint another violin." I should have her add "hydrangea" to the mantra.) Have you ever counted the number of individual flowers on those glorious pinky-blue heads?? As you will note, I chose to highlight a few florets but ultimately chose sanity over complexity. The full painting is about three times as wide as it is tall and I was a wreck by the time I finished it; while watercolour is not quite as unforgiving as some would have you believe, it is still hard to back out of a problem, especially if the colour you wish to alter is a "staining" one. Sometimes you have no choice but to "crop" it down. Everyone I know who paints in watercolour has at some point had to choose felicitous sections of a painting or two; out of some misdirected frugality, we then cut the rejected part(s) into bookmarks. You will notice that our group shows always feature free bookmarks, every one different. Now you know why.
Just to be clear, I have no intention of ever painting hydrangeas again. (A friend has been trained to remind me: "Don't ever paint another violin." I should have her add "hydrangea" to the mantra.) Have you ever counted the number of individual flowers on those glorious pinky-blue heads?? As you will note, I chose to highlight a few florets but ultimately chose sanity over complexity. The full painting is about three times as wide as it is tall and I was a wreck by the time I finished it; while watercolour is not quite as unforgiving as some would have you believe, it is still hard to back out of a problem, especially if the colour you wish to alter is a "staining" one. Sometimes you have no choice but to "crop" it down. Everyone I know who paints in watercolour has at some point had to choose felicitous sections of a painting or two; out of some misdirected frugality, we then cut the rejected part(s) into bookmarks. You will notice that our group shows always feature free bookmarks, every one different. Now you know why.
"Sky-blue Pink" (detail) watercolour 16 x 30
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