Hanging Baskets

Today is Mother's Day and I would like to wish everyone a very happy day.















When I let Kyora out this morning I found on the front porch my first Mother's Day gift. It was a flat of Marigolds.















Ron has watched while I fought with the many weeds that have taken over my rock garden and how long it takes me to remove them from just a small section of ground.















When I returned from grocery shopping I was greeted by four hanging baskets along the side of the house.















There was a fuchsia, which is one of my favourite plants and the other three were petunias, two were of mixed colours; pink, purple and red and the last one was a rich burgundy.















The nice thing about these flowers is that they attract hummingbirds throughout the summer.















Around suppertime Christine arrived bring Chinese food for supper, which was wonderful as I really didn't feel like going out to eat.















The other thing she brought for me was a beautiful hanging basket of very dark, almost black  pansies.















I moved the fuchsia to the hook by the maple tree at the front of the house and hung her basket on the hook by the kitchen window where I can see it every time I look out the window.

ACEO - Frost Fairies 1

I started this painting earlier this year when I was playing with salt on watercolour paper (see post on 05 January 2013).

I found a face by one of the flowers and lightly drew it in and started to add some definition to the flowers which will be petunias.

I started with the hair on the fairy and put it in using raw sienna and for the darker areas I used burnt sienna.















The face was a mix of burnt sienna and alizarin crimson. The eyes were Antwerp blue and the lips alizarin crimson.

I then started working on the flowers. I made various shades of mauve and violet, using mixtures of alizarin crimson, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue.

First I put in the darkest veins on the petals to give the flowers some shape.















Working every other flower so that the paint could dry before working on the one right beside it I used either mauve or violet to paint the petunias.

Next I drew in a few leaves and filled them in using various combinations of raw sienna, new gamboge, Antwerp blue and French ultramarine blue.

Lastly, I did a little more work on the fairy's face to complete the painting.















If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 300lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $20.00 and sold unframed.