Skip to main content

Mother's Day Bouquet Drawings

I've switched gears and started painting and drawing a lot more in my studio. I tend to do this as the seasons change. Seasonal change is just to darned inspirational to ignore. Spring is lovely and lush with unusual colors worth celebrating.

Just in time my son Liam bought me this lovely, full bouquet of tulips with stock and some trumpet flowers, among other tiny delights for Mother's Day. It took all week to do these drawings. It felt like a race against time. That's what happens for me with direct observation still life. The light changes greatly from day to day and the subject transforms, if it is alive, as is the case with flowers.

So here's what I did.


"Mother's Day Tulips Full Sun" c. 2015, Stephanie Rose Bird


Mixed Media Preliminary "Tulip Study" c. 2015, Stephanie Rose Bird


Close Up Pastel Study, "Tulips" c. 2015, Stephanie Rose Bird




Black and White Vine Charcoal Study, "Tulip Bouquet," c. 2015, Stephanie Rose Bird
*please do not reproduce these images without my permission.

I did approximately one drawing per day but then there was this stubborn one. I probably worked on it 15 hours all told. Ugh. I fought it and battled. I thought I'd lost it entirely because it wasn't saying what I wanted it to. It seemed like a hopeless waste of time and art supplies. Then I settled in to the fact that it was done on a cloudy part of the week, when I prefer sunny days for my work. I went with the murky impressionism brought on by the clouds. Through acceptance of what was put before me, instead of pinning away for what I wished for, I saved the drawing.


                         Pastel Drawing, "Cloudy Day Bouquet, c. 2015, Stephanie Rose Bird


Mother's Day is always bittersweet. My mother passed away suddenly and we were very close. I was also close to my paternal Grandmother and Great Grandmother. Still, life goes on and they'd want me to celebrate life. I adore my children and we have wonderful celebrations each year.




My daughter Olivia bought an incredible arrangement of orchids. They are planted so I don't have to race to capture their image, though I've started preliminary studies. Orchids up next...

Comments

  1. Lovely pictures. Don't often have cut flowers their life span is so short. Have a violet and some Basil

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Jo. I don't have an indoor green thumb so cut flowers workout well. Violets and basil sound lovely.

      Delete
  2. Love the thoughts behind the art work and it echoes positivity and powerful vibes. Sad to hear about your Mom and may she always be with you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful artwork Stephanie thank you for sharing ... looking forward to the orchids :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Susan. I'm having fun and being very productive in my studio. Orchids are coming along well!

      Delete
  4. Hi Stephanie .. wonderful memories and so far back ... I do remember my great great grandmother ... she died at 100 ... always in black ... and her daughter my great aunt was a fantastic artist ... it hasn't filtered down this end of the family tree! Your drawings are delightful and what a lovely family photo .. cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hillary, wow Great Great grand? That's amazing! Thanks for stopping by!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Go ahead. Make my day by leaving a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Follow Fest Interview and Sharing

When I first became a blogger it was difficult to know if I had readers and visitors coming to my blog. I’d post and be met by the sounds of crickets. Then, I branched out into the world of the blogosphere, a world I  didn't  know really existed. From my ventures, I met a lot of interesting bloggers.  I've  started following and commenting on numerous blogs, for you see, prior to my outings, I too was out among the crickets. Lurking about but seldom saying anything. A fellow blogger  I've  met through my journeys around the blogosphere is Melissa Maygrove . She had the brilliant idea to have a Follow Fest , where we share about who we are, what we do and most importantly, how you can connect with us further. It is my intention through joining Follow Fest, that I’ll connect with many more readers and people interested enough in what I do to want to learn more by following. So, here goes my entry for the fest. Name:   Stephanie Rose Bird Fiction or

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden.  Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit.  The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts.  Mysteries ca

Xochitl--Flower

                                     (Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season.  The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post  is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower.                                            ( Frida Kahlo "Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser) In many different belief systems there are nature gods and goddesses connected with flowers. Flowers possess symbolism,