Blooming Thundercloud Plum Trees

These days, there are so many blooming trees around me, I feel like there is no way to visit them all (and there is no way to visit them all) - but I try nonetheless :)

These thundercloud plum trees have beautifully shaped, slightly toothy on the edge, wine-purple leaves and small plums that are usually consumed by squirrels and birds before anyone else has a chance. But before all of that, out of cool-gray with red undertone branches come beautiful pink flowers. First they appear one at a time, and then an avalanche of blooms that gives a tree a cloud-like look. Leaves start appearing on the bottom of the tree first slowly closing in on the flowers. 

I did a portrait of one tree and then tried to capture what a street of them feels like to me from the shadow of a large coastal redwood. Process photos below.

A Blooming Cacti!

My friend found some incredible blooming cacti and we had a lovely lunch & sketch outing drawing them! 

Surprising for me was the length of the flower itself and how much space you can see. Star-like stigma was especially beautiful! Also - how much fragrance do these flowers carry! (still sneezing :) I did not see bees but I believe they are the main pollinators - though judging by the amount of space a small pigeon also can be tempted. 

The most challenging part was judging colors in a very bright sun - so I picked a few markers and pencils and was disciplined about not using everything I had. I really liked little super-furry cacti babies on tops of the plants - they looked like a good reason to come back to this corner :) 

Blooming Orchard Painting Disaster.

Imagine a friend taking you to paint a blooming orchard. It is a gorgeous day and the view is spectacular - filled with white blooming fruit trees. And you sit down with your lunch and sketching gear and realize that... you forgot to pack white with you. Even your backup white (and backup to backup - which I usually also carry but that is a story for another post). 

I ended up making two sketches: one with the flowers colored pink :) And another with the naked trees - and I added white from my memory and photos when I got to my white :) I did not post these for two weeks. True story. With some continuation, I think.

Chestnut Trees