Beautiful Bloom

Goodbye Winter! Spring is definitely along the way as temperatures in Holland soar double-digit figures ☀️! Well given the rather unpredictable climate here, so far! During that post-illness walk in the neighbourhood last week, I noticed quite a number of flowers budding and blooming, all in various colours 🌸. The Netherlands is known for their beautiful flowers, and it’s not just the tulips! 🌷

And how can I not resist getting inspired by them? Went through my photos I had taken and decided I make a “trilogy” out of the pink and the purple ones (sorry I don’t know their names lol) with the Krokus in the middle. 💐. The following work is with watercolours. 🎨

With an earthy coloured background wash, I let it dry and started “stamping” some green onto it using a crumpled up kitchen paper. I masked the flowers with masking liquid before that, finding that more effective than painting over the already-coloured background because the colours would stand out stronger directly from white paper. 🌺.

👩🏻‍🎨 When colouring in the flowers, I must admit I did “cheat” a bit using some watercolour pens I bought in Japan. They are from “SAI Japanese Traditional Colors”. As illustrated below they come in a variety of brilliant shades, definitely perfect for flowers!! 🌹. Once I added the colour, I spread them out with a wet brush for a more diluted effect. So this is the watercolour version. Perhaps I try a variety of other mediums too! Acrylic, pastels…. and this is the time to use Gesso for a more textured effect…