Laburnum Revisited

“Be Patient.

Respond to every call that excites your spirit.”

Rumi

Patience is an attribute that every botanical artist needs to have. Choosing to paint from life means that we are very much at the whims of nature, constantly marking the seasons and watching the weather. It’s not unusual for a botanical artist to set aside a painting for a year whilst they wait for a plant to bloom once more or a fruit to ripen.  

In my garden I have a beautiful laburnum tree (Laburnum anagyroides) that for a few weeks each year, fills my garden with cascades of glorious golden flowers and a wonderful perfume that sends bees into rapturous joy. Every year I promise myself that I will paint it but time has always been against me. 

Last year I managed to do a small study for the sketchbook exchange and I promised myself that this year, I would be ready!

So I have been patiently watching my garden with a growing sense of anticipation. I have a gorgeous piece of honey coloured natural calf vellum which will really set off those golden flowers. 

Whilst I waited, I decided to do a few small studies to hone my palette. Yellow is a tricky colour to paint. It can slip from glowing to drab in a few washes, which makes varying the tones quite difficult. Some artists achieve wonderful results by doing a monochromatic study first in greys and then painting a wash of yellow over it. Others mix their yellows with tiny bits of purple to create shadow tones.

 Personally I prefer to keep my colours as clean as possible and use the large range of yellows available to create the tones. That said, a few shadow colours, purple-grey or green will slip into the mix towards the end if I felt it is needed.

There is no right or wrong way. If it works, do it!

So first to make a huge yellow colour chart. Yes, I really do have all those colours, and yes, the Daniel Smith dot chart makes me want to whip out that credit card and invest in a few more. 

However I resist the urge and finally decide on my favourites of winsor lemon, winsor yellow and new gamboge as my basic yellows.

My biggest struggle is always with greens, especially on vellum where opaque paints can feel a bit like kicking a lead-filled football around a pitch. So I needed to find a good transparent green mix. Fortunately my good friend Sigrid Frensen mentioned how nice turquoise was with quinacridone gold, both wonderfully transparent. 

Winsor Blue Green with Quinacridone Gold ... a fabulous mix!

So having played around with several mixes, I settled on Winsor Blue-Green with quinacridone and a little transparent yellow. I have had Winsor Blue Green for years but always ignored it as it was just too bright for any of my mixes. The Quin gold tames it beautifully.

Playing with green mixes

Of course it is not just botanical artists who revisit favourite subjects to paint, artists have done this for centuries. Each time they paint their subject, they discover something new. It allows them to develop their techniques, their composition and their colour palette.

Inspiration stimulates creativity.

My imagination has been caught! Bring on the blossoms.

“The glow of inspiration warms us and it is a holy rapture”

Ovid

Laburnum and The Bee

"For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life,

And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love,

And to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy."

Khalil Gibran

This week I have been working on Aislinn Adams’ sketchbook for the Nature Trails Sketchbook Exchange.  Her sketchbook is beautiful, already filling up with lovely artwork, but what caught my eye is right at the back, where Aislinn has included “The List of Rules for Life and Learning” written by artist and educator Sister Corita Kent.

Aislinn's Rules at the back of her sketchbook

Rule 4 : Consider everything an Experiment

I like this rule. Too often we make things difficult for ourselves by expecting everything to turn out perfectly. How many times do we find ourselves faced with a blank sheet of paper or canvas, only to find ourselves frozen with uncertainty and indecision? A friend once advised me to call every work of art ‘a study’. If it doesn’t work out, then that’s fine… it’s a study. If it does work, then that’s a bonus!

This sketchbook project has been great in that it has encouraged me to try out new things, and to experiment with ideas, plants and colours.

I decided that I would try to paint the gorgeous Laburnum anagyroides tree in my back garden. Every year it bursts into bloom; wonderfully scented cascades of yellow blossom, that delight both me and the fat bumble bees that visit. I have always wanted to paint it but never found the time.

I used floral oasis to position the stem so that the flower hangs in a realistic manner

 A piece of white card  helps isolate the flowers from the background. Colour charts are always useful.

As always I start with a single flower, just to work out what I am looking at. I paint it from different angles, and I also pull it apart, laying the pieces onto double sided sellotape to keep them flat. Yes, I know... that top one is upside-down, but look at Rule 6 below!

A note of caution- all parts of Laburnum anagyroides are poisonous. Three or four seedpods are enough to kill a child.

Rule 6: Nothing is a Mistake. There’s no Win & no Fail. There’s only Make.

As I was working on the flowers, I noticed a fat bumble bee that had followed me into the house and who was now bumping against a closed window in frustration, despite the open door nearby. Later that day I found the poor creature lying exhausted on the windowsill, scarcely moving. I popped her into a glass and decided to do a quick study.

Bees are great little subjects to paint and can be a wonderful addition to a botanical painting. 

 When I had finished, I decided to try out something that a friend had told me the week before. If you find a bee that looks like it’s dying, try putting a drop of honey beside it. A long tongue will suddenly appear, and the bee will start to drink the honey and recover. Well, my little bee suddenly came back to life, quivering with excitement as she lapped up the sweet honey. I was absolutely amazed, especially as after 15 minutes, she shot up into the air like a rocket! Next time you find a tired bee, try this!

A happy bee.... look at that long tongue!

Off she goes! Apparently a tummy-full of honey will keep a bee flying for 40 minutes.

Rule 9: Be Happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.

My final addition to the page was a few senna pods from Egypt, Senna alexandrina. I have had them in my desk for a while now waiting to be painted. They were fun to do, but perhaps not to drink in tea, even with honey!

The finished spread

"Life is a succession of moments, to live each one is to succeed" 

Sister Corita Kent