Grateful: Two Bouquets and a Friendship

My friend gave me two bouquets: one for me and one for my Mom. They were a perfect gift: I got to draw them, looking for similarities and differences. I brought one to Mom, and it was a conversation topic for several days: discussing flowers within, colors of those flowers, if they need more water, if some of the flowers should go, and what we will do with the succulents later. Thank You!

That color swatching was my attempt at thinking about what materials and colors I should take with me to Toulouse :) The choices were changed many, many times :)

Fall Flowers: Dahlias or Chrysanthemums?

I picked up a bouquet at the local farmer's market and enjoyed it for two whole weeks - as a splash of color during the early morning or an incredible shape of a shadow when the sun is high, as a glowing presence during sunset hours. I did not draw it as much as I thought I would but some pages of my everyday sketchbook are recording its presence.

However, when I decided to share these images a question struck me - were these Dahlias (as I thought) or Chrysanthemums? And, as it often happens, it put me on a whole new track of searching for information and hence I am publishing this post a good 5 days after preparing it :) 

p.s. these were dahlias. I now know what to look for :)

Little Everyday Things

I picked up a bunch of dahlias at the farmers market last week and still enjoy their company. There is a little story about this particular pink one - written in the sketch.

Also, there is a shortage of magnolia seed pods this year: I looked at my sketchbook from a year ago and saw that I had plenty to draw by this time. But this year I see only old or half-eaten ones. 

A little video about me painting the seed pods here: