Last days Of Summer 2012

Delphinium picked from my garden this morning for a wonderful relaxing day painting in blues.

Over the last week I have witnessed the wind and rain knocking down all the beautiful delphiniums in our garden. Normally I leave these flowers  rather than pick them for flower arrangements as their beauty and vibrant blue shades add such drama to our cottage flower beds. But as the wind had knocked them down my husband had gathered them and given them to me while he worked outside in the sunshine yesterday. I do so love this part of my life, being given armfuls of gorgeous flowesr from our own garden to decorate our cottage with. It feels like something I have yearned for over the years of constant travelling from country to country while we lived abroad,to finally have a place that I know I will be living in for the rest of my life.  Initially I made a wonderful flower arrangement with the delphiniums for our home but I kept looking at it last night and dreamt about the flowers as I slept. So I knew this morning I would just have to get the majestic blooms

 out of my system and paint them!

Cerulean Blue as a pigment has sat in my palette almost ignored all summer and finally it created a basic wash which I merged Winsor Violet in places for the petals. Inside each centre I used Indgo added with my own personalised rigger brush which is perfect for adding fine detail or smaller amounts of neat pigment which I often use as a technique.. I have also used my rigger for working around individual petals adding touches that seperate blocks of colour. I am thrilled with the feedback I am receiving from buyers of my personalised brush sets and love the words " sensual to use" that keep cropping up. They do glide across paper beautifully and help with my work so much. But the finest of Kolinsky brushes always will be a delight to use!

My tip to anyone aware that  a season is coming to an end, is to make time to paint what you love before it disappears until next year. I often say life isn't a rehearsal and we should never put off until tomorrow what we could paint today while we feel so enthusiastic about it.  During my demonstrations and at art events I am meeting so many artists who tell me they never have enough time to paint. Well today there are many things that I need to do including plant foxglove seedlings so that I have lots of them to enjoy painting next year but my heart and mood feels so much more energised and happier because I painted what I wanted to paint first!

So my artists tips this Sunday.........

1) Do something just for you even if it is just once a week

2) Find time to paint! Even if its a ten minute play with colour, paint!

3) Don't put off until tomorrow what you know you could paint today!

Have fun!

Close up of the delphinium I am working on.