To me, as a watercolour painter I have realized the essence of a flower is not the scent - as aromatic as some can be - but the colour. One flowering tree that is common in Tumbler Ridge is the lilac. I remember lilac trees at my grandparents home in Kelowna and bought some for my yard. Alas, I am not a gardener and planted one too close to his neighbouring trees and one - a delicate french variety - has never bloomed.
We have one huge tree in front of our home that loves the heat of the home and has not been pruned properly and while it blooms it spends more of it’s energy on growing.
So when this lilac came into bloom at a friends home - I was astonished at the colour and abundance of blooms! This tree took my breath away by its beauty.
After driving by and being amazed each time, I finally captured it on my camera. I had to paint the explosion of colour.
It took a few tries and I experimented with close up images to capture the brillant essence of the colours too. Here are my favourites.
The Pacific Dogwood is the BC flower and it is a beautiful white, however the Flowering Dogwood can be pink and has a look like a small magnolia with pinks fading to whites and lovely textured pedals. As I looked deeper at the flower I noticed that the middle was an unusual -intricate tiny buds that looked like they would eventually burst with more tiny flowers. (And, after some research I discovered, that what they do!)
So again the essence of a flower is revealed in a new way - colours upon colours bursting forth over time.
I love to paint - and even more so I love how it has stirred my scientific curiosity and brought me to fuller realization of the beauty of this world I live in.
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