Monday, April 28, 2008

Fallen Tulip


Fallen Tulip - 18 x 24cm Watercolour - Clairefontaine Sketchbook

One of the red tulips in the garden was broken off overnight so I put off the dreaded weeding to paint it this morning. It reminded me of a girl in a red satin dress who had danced too long at the ball and finally collapsed.


Red Shine Lily-flowered Tulips still standing

This is the first year I've planted tulips and I can't bring myself to cut them for the house or for art. I just take endless photographs when, in fact, I should be sketching and painting them.

I haven't been at all diligent about keeping up my Garden Journal sketchbook, but everything is photographed as it blooms. The other day I decided to start a new blog Our Tuscan Garden as a place to post these photos and tell the story of our experience making a garden in Tuscany.

I was very pleased that the title was available and very distressed when Blogger shortly after locked me out of my new blog. Days later the powers that be at Blogger have had time to check and have decided it isn't all spam.

The story begins at the beginning so it's going to take quite a few posts to bring our garden story up to the present day. I will continue to post my paintings from the garden here as well as on the other blog.

Now I really must get stuck into the weeding!

14 comments:

Genine said...

This is beatufiful, wonderful lightand shine!!

Dave said...

What a luscious red! Beautifully painted too. Well worth putting off the weeding for!

Lin said...

EXQUISITE job, Robyn!!! LOVE IT!

Anonymous said...

Your tulip is so beautiful Robyn! and what a lovely red!I'm going to enjoy dropping by your garden blog and seeing it develop! A good idea, the garden blog, that way you'll be forced to weed regularly...what will we think of you if we see weeds in your garden?!
ronell

Joan said...

Wonderful colors in this!!! It does resemble a dancer with brilliant, full skirts that sort of just floats down to the floor in exhaustion. Nice job! I'll have to check out your garden blog.

E-J said...

You've captured the tulip's sheen perfectly - and the girl in the red dress is a delightful analogy!

Gardening never appealed to me until VERY recently, when a book on Monet's colour harmonies at Giverny sparked an interest ... I officially began gardening yesterday. :)

Anita Davies said...

Robyn this is simply stunning!!!

Katiejane said...

Love your tulip painting! She does look a bit like a lady in a dress, however, I see her as someone who danced and this is the finale, where she bows on the floor, like Swan Lake.

I'm heading over to your new blog now.....

Unknown said...

Robyn, Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. You led me to a wonderful treat seeing your work and blog. Your tulip sketch is awesome. Wish i could get my hot hands on the Japanese book you posted about. what an excellant find. ok heading over to your Tuscan Garden. And I'll be back again

caseytoussaint said...

Beautiful! How do you get such intense color?

Robyn Sinclair said...

Thank you very much Lin, David and Genine.

Ronell - If you see weeds in my garden, you see the real me. If you see my garden without weeds, you'll know it was because you were visiting.

e-j - Congratulations on your new garden! I too only developed the gardening bug recently. It's amazing what artists will do to find subjects ;)

Joan - Thanks, I always love to see your garden paintings. You are braver than I, in that you paint the whole garden landscape.

Anita - Thank you! I'm enjoying your spring flowers too.

Katie Jane - Thank you. I thought she looked more like the dying swan - but I was wrong, as you can see from my later post.

Toni - I'm thrilled you visited. I love your blog and suggest anyone, who hasn't done so, should visit you too.

Casey - Thanks. I find reds difficult. These tulips are so intense they are even difficult to photograph in the garden. This time I used a Alizarin Crimson with very little water and then dropped in some Cadmium Red while the wash was still wet. I hardly every use Cadmium Red because it isn't transparent.

Laurel Neustadter said...

Your painting is amazing! I can't believe it is watercolor. It is so shiny and vibrant. Great work!

Making A Mark said...

Gorgeous tulips - what long stems they have!

Judybec said...

Beautiful painting! I love your red tulips and can't wait to see your garden blog.

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