ORANGE FLOWERS

ORANGE FLOWERS

20 x 20 inch, oil

My favorite summer activity is working in my gardens.  Grooming, watering, weeding, feeding, and finally PICKING!  Now, it's August and the summer garden is bursting with inspiration!  Supposedly, yellow and orange represent freshness, optimism, remembrance, loyalty, and joy, among other things.  That's a lot of positive stuff making yellow and orange great colors to have in your home.  This painting was done on a warm summer night in my little home studio.  

Check it out at Gillyflower Cottage on Etsy.

IT'S WEDDING SEASON AND FLOWERS ABOUND!

It's wedding season and

WEDDING BOUQUET PORTRAITS

are keeping me busy these days!

A portrait of your wedding bouquet is a lasting memory of your big day! I have orders that brides themselves have ordered, bridesmaids have collectively given to the bride as a wedding gift, and mothers have given to their daughters.  Here are a few of the finished portraits:

 I work from a photograph that you send when you order.  First the pen and ink outline is done and then the color is added.  Shown below is my next bouquet waiting to be painted.  This one is full of roses, astilbe, dahlias, and eucalyptus!

The portraits can be done in 3 different sizes.  

Just use the pull down tab on the listing to choose 

the dimensions that work best for you.

Your custom watercolor, 

pen and ink portraits can be ordered here!

-Nan

BOTANICAL COUNTDOWN - DAY 2

ICELANDIC BLUE POPPY 

The Icelandic Blue Poppy symbolizes imagination, luxury, and success.  The delicate petals are wrinkled and crepe-like due to being tightly packed into the bud.  It is said that the hairs (which seem to be everywhere on this plant) have an unusual taste which protects it from predators.  And the seeds found in the pod of the poppy are used in cooking and bird seed.  

ICELANDIC BLUE POPPY

This illustration shows the flower, bud, leaves and pod.

8 x 10 inches

Close-up of fully opened poppy and dried pods.

BOTANICAL COUNTDOWN

PREPARING FOR GARDENING SEASON 

WITH 

A BOTANICAL COUNTDOWN

What do you do while you're waiting to get your hands in the dirt?  When May has arrived and the nights are still too cold to plant, and the ground is too wet to till?  

One of the best parts of spring's arrival on the calendar, is to plan your garden while you wait for spring to make its arrival in the weather department.  This year I plan on doing some botanical drawings while I wait, so I'll be posting drawings of some favorite flowers and plants.

CHRYSANTHEMUM AND BUDS

11 x 11 inches

RANUNCULUS AND BUDS

11 x 11 inches

  

Click the titles to go to Etsy for purchase information.

MANDARINS AND POPPIES

Orange for its emotional warmth and blue for the sky and the sea, these colors are opposite one another on the color wheel.  And what good companions they make!

Since we can't grow anything outside in Wisconsin right now, what a perfect way to bring some of those colors of nature into the house!  This painting titled Mandarins and Poppies measures 24" x 24" and is available for purchase in my Etsy shop, Gillyflower Cottage.  Think spring!