Flourish

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On the last day of the Pilgrimage to Paris I led in 2015 four of us took a day trip to another place of inspiration – Monet’s gardens at Giverny. It had been rainy and cloudy all week, but that Friday was spectacular with blue sky and puffy white clouds. My previous two visits to Giverny were both in the springtime, so I wondered  whether there would still be much in bloom in autumn. I was happy to discover there was plenty of color – with dozens of varieties of dahlias at their peak, as well as the beginnings of fall color in the big, established trees that surround the lily pond.

So what did I need to paint first? Roses, of course!  I’m pretty hopeless in my devotion to them.  These late-season blooms were cascading down from a vine on the large turquoise arbor-like structure in the part of the garden towards the house.  They had arranged themselves in a lovely composition and the splashes of color and rich greens in the background were a nice contrast to the delicately colored petals. The deal was sealed by the blue and turquoise in the colors of the arbor and the sky.

When I paint I’m more of a mixer of color than a layer-er.  My brush hits different wells on my palette bringing various colors to a spot in the middle until I come to the color in my mind’s eye.  But the shadowy parts of these roses told me to try something different. I was concerned that if I mixed too much I might end up with dull, dead colors. So I decided to layer using just three paints:  a rose, a yellow and a soft blue.

I painted in that order: I first laid down rose where I saw it – either on its own or under yellow.  Then where I saw yellow, then blue. There were a few places where I just had to mix – the dark neutral browns, but I still used only these three colors to mix – The five central roses were done with strictly three paints.

At first I thought the name might need to be something that would intimate the French connection. Starting with the French word for flower:  fleur, I found my way to fleurish, which is cute, but a bit much.  When spoken the sound of fleurish is very close to flourish, which has other meanings as an expressive gesture as well as to grow vigorously, which both fit.

May I introduce you to Flourish?!

June-August 2017 – 30″x22″ – Watercolor on paper