My darling daughter who designed this beautiful website for me, passed away recently after a long, brave struggle against cancer. On what turned out to be her last walk she asked her husband to photograph the foxgloves for me to paint. My Sami knew that this is my way to cope with life’s trials and tribulations. This one’s for you my love.
There are tutorial videos on my Facebook Page
Yes, at this time of year I feel the urge to paint daffodils.
I spent many years of my life living in Pembrokeshire, Wales. My son was born there. My daughter had her first day in school there.
March 1st is a very important day in Wales and indeed for all Welsh people everywhere. It is St.David’s day, the Patron Saint of Wales. It is a day of celebration. The children dress up in the Welsh national costume and everyone wears a daffodil pinned to their lapel. Some people wear a leek but they tend to regret that as the day goes on, when the leek starts to pong very strongly.
Later I spent four years in Cornwall where daffodils are also very important. The milder climate means that the daffodils flower much earlier in the year. The race is on to be the first to sale their daffodils and get the best price. The fields are full of beautiful yellow daffodils.
“I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.”
” A host of Golden Daffodils” Thank you William Wordsworth
This year I am a little late but the urge is still there.
I have painted them in my art journal with Derwent Inktense pencils.
I have also painted a daffodil field using a process using masking fluid in layers with watercolour in between. I find this process exciting because you are never sure what the outcome will be. There is a video of both of these pictures and if they are not here on my website you will find them on my YouTube channel HevLovesFlowers
Inspired by a photo taken by my niece Claire. Her daughter Lily walking through a field of buttercups.
I was very excited to paint this and it just couldn’t wait.
I love this technique which I have used several times before. It saves me getting too bogged down in detail.
Press Videos button for step by step.
Dusting my bookshelves, I came across a favourite jigsaw puzzle. It was years since I’d used it but it was such a pretty picture that I had kept it to do again one day. It had a metallic finish, and of course it was flowers, peonies this time.
SPRING PEONIES BY CHIU WENG
I was inspired by the metallic finish and by the fact that I had never painted a peony before.
I wasn’t sure of the structure of a peony so I had to do some research on the internet. I discovered that they are multi-layered and wanted to portray that in the form of a collage.
See Video
I walk with love along the way
I walk with love along the way
My mother used to play the organ at the local church. I went with her when she practiced.
I would stand in the empty church and sing at the top of my voice. One of my favourite hymns was, “I walk with love along the way”.
It comforted me. Lately I have been feeling a little apprehensive about the future, not only for myself, but also for my family. That beautiful hymn came to mind and I wanted to record it in my art journal and feel the comfort once again.
I decided to make my design in the form of an infinity symbol, without limits and universal. I painted my flowers on a pathway of mosaic tiles, symbolising the complexity of everlasting life.
My faith is simple and child-like, not governed by any form of organised religion. I am a free spirit.
I believe that each and every one of us is a manifestation of a single Universal Consciousness. I believe there is profound truth in the ancient teaching that we are all One. We are all connected – not only to each other but to all of Nature and to everything in the Universe.
See video.
I love the summer here in Fuerteventura, the only drawback is that my studio gets too hot to work in comfortably. With the sun directly overhead my terracotta tiles absorb all the heat. Now the sun has dipped more towards the east and the temperatures have decreased a little. (It is still 25C which suits my old bones). Now I feel the urge to get back to my creative endeavors. My daughter sparked me off by challenging me to do the Inktober prompts. I was finding it a challenge and the only thing that came to me was to make the letters of the word convey the meaning. The word which finally got me inspired was Loop. It made me think of a grape vine and the wonderful tendrils and spiral shapes.
I am just starting this new painting (or rather Derwent Inktense pencils plus water painting) of my namesake the pretty purple-pink plant Heather or Ling and the beautiful yellow flower of the coconut smelling gorse with its sharp pointy spikes. These flowers grow all over heathland and moorland on acidy soils in the UK at this time of year. I am depicting two types of Heather (Ling or Calluna Vulgaris)and Bell Heather (Erica Cinerea).
The spiny leaves of the gorse plant grow in all different directions and are sharp. This is the plant protecting itself from grazing animals.
While searching for information about the correct names for the different types of heather I found out that heather has many medicinal uses. I didn’t realise that before. Apparently it can be used to make tea for kidney and lower urinary tract conditions and many other remedies.
Animals graze on it, and birds feed on the tips of it. It is cultivated in Scotland to encourage the breeding of grouse for shooting.
It has been used to dye wool yellow and to tan leather and for making heather beer before the use of hops.
From ancient times people have used it to make “besoms” or sweeping brooms. In fact the latin name calluna is derived from the greek kalluna meaning “to brush”
It was used for durable thatching on roofs.
And the occasional white heather which was quite rare in the wild was considered very lucky and was used in bridal bouquets.
Fascinating.
TO BE CONTINUED
If you are thinking that you won’t be able to do this because you can’t draw, I have created a simple line drawing of part of my design which you can copy and print out to get you started. in a later article I will show you how to use your own photographs to copy and trace the flower ready for your painting.
Painting the Ling or Calluna Vulgaris. The flowers are more open with this type of Heather. You can see the inside of the bell. I used the dark red inktense pencil “Shiraz” to do the interior and washed it with water to set the colour. I let it dry then painted the rest of the flower as before.
The Silver Studded Butterfly can be found on the Heathland where the gorse and Heather grow so I decided to add some to my picture. It is a very pretty blue. I find the best way to draw butterflies once I’ve got the outline right is to do the dark markings first as it helps me to work out the structure of the wings and the patterns. So I did that first and sealed it with the water and let it dry. My butterflies aren’t perfect. I am no expert, but they are pretty and they add to my picture. This is my philosophy and this is why I wanted to create this blog. Our paintings don’t have to be perfect, we are doing this for ourselves, if other people like it then that is a bonus, but that is not our purpose.
First of all because I want to keep the white of the paper for my daisy petals, I am working my way around the main flowers. I vary the greens, and as I work, I’m trying to decide what might be behind them so I’m roughing in some grass shapes. The way the grasses will cut across the composition will be very important eventually, the straight angular lines contrasting with the rounded flower shapes. At this stage I dart about from one daisy to another to allow the ink to dry. The beauty of these pencils is that they are ink and once wetted then dried, they are permanent. You can go over them with other colours and they won’t lift off. I am leaving large areas in between the daisies because I may decide later on to add some more flowers and I also need to decide where the grasses will cut across. I like to leave room for spontaneity.
I’m working down the page because I am finding that with my my hand rubbing against the drawing I tend to lose some definition. The beauty of these pencils however, is that you can keep going in and make it richer and richer. With watercolour you only really get one chance to make things right because overworked watercolours can look awful.
I’ve been working on the stems. I enjoy deciding which stems go on top or underneath and making sure there is logic to where they are going.
Continuing to work down the page. Looking very closely at all flowers belonging to the daisy family they are categorised by having one single flower head composed of many tiny flowers, (sometimes over a hundred) called florets, which are then surrounded by rays of longer petals.
I started to work on the flower heads which are sometimes quite bulbous. I use yellow and orange and a little red to create the bulbous look on some of them. I think that they start to bulge when the tiny florets are beginning to form seeds.
Continuing to work down the page.
This is the second in my series of some of my favourite flowers.
Using Derwent Inktense pencils on 140lb not (cold pressed) fine grain watercolour paper in a block 20″x 16″. The idea is to create an illustration to draw awareness to the vulnerability of our planet and not take it for granted. I started off with a circle shape, inspired by my hebe plant in the shape of a globe. I began with a poppy for remembrance, “lest we forget”
I then added another poppy and a bud.
Then some forget-me-nots.
Then some Love-lies.bleeding (Amaranthus)
Next I added some London Pride, to symbolise the idea of power, greed, and materialism, putting profits before environmental issues. then some Bleeding Heart flowers to symbolise the plight of our planet. I decided to put Forget-me-nots all around the edge in amongst the Hebe as they reminded me of the oceans.
