Bumble Bee and Lupin

 Lupin Flower with Bumble Bee

Yesterday was such a fantastic day in my garden. I enjoyed painting so many flowers during the day. Sadly both time and sunshine ran out before I managed to paint the pink lupins that are towering over the other plants in one perrenial border. Today as soon as I could I headed towards the pink columns of flowers and settled to work. I calmly listened to sweet birdsong and the humming of many working bees, several of which had decided they liked the pink flowers I was painting as much as I did.

It soon became clear to me that painting the flower and the bee would be far more interesting as a composition. So in this piece, above, you can just see the hint of the little buzzy bee hovering above the flower. Nature  had attracted the bee by the vibrant colour of the flower. My watercolour attracted several bees too which is why I stopped at this stage. Maybe the biggest compliment on any floral art is when you fool an insect into believing they have landed on a real plant when in fact it is just a painting.

I hope to paint more gorgeous flowers in my garden this afternoon to make the most of this stunning English Summer weather.

Artist Tip of the Day : Allow nature to guide your  compositions. Learn from life as much as possible and save working from photography for days when its  raining or too cold to go outside.

Lupins and Bee on my easel, almost complete.