A Week of Lilacs and How to Keep them Alive

The fragrance of lilacs is one of the threads that outlined seasons in my childhood. I enjoy finding these beautiful blooming bushes every year to catch that "smell of May," and I try to paint them every year. 

They are probably one of the most exciting and maddening color challenges for me to paint! Lilac season in California is actually in March and not in May like in Ukraine, and this year I visited a few bushes that I knew and found a couple of new ones in my neighborhood too (which is always exciting). But I did not get a chance to do a proper outing to paint them. So when I saw this beautiful bouquet in a local Trader Joe's, the decision to spend a week with these flowers on my table was simple! Hot weather made it a bit of a struggle to keep them alive, but frequent trimming, accompanied by a change of water and cold water mist, helped. These sketches are chronological - so the last one - quite droopy was the one before goodbye. 

Lilacs in Gouache - with palette photos.

I have several friendly lilac bushes that I enjoy visiting during the lilac season. Some were out of sorts this year but I was super lucky to find some new ones - and one of them was white! 

When I was growing up in Ukraine, there were two complementary theories about lilacs. One was that lilacs love when you break the branches and not cut them. And another was that lilacs grow much better if someone steals some from the bush. I do not remember ever buying lilacs. My grandmother had a white lilac bush with a lovely fragrance and my other grandmother loved purple lilacs so May was a month filled with large bouquets of lilacs brought by various family members. I liked painting them and how they worked in a glass jar or intricate vase and in general how wide these bouquets were, how they commanded the space! 

Later I learned about a third lilac-related theory: if you ever find a 5-petaled lilac flower you should make a wish and eat it. These days I diligently start looking for an odd-petaled flower but usually quickly get lost in trying to see all the colors and decipher all the shapes.

I feel like lilac painting can always be better - but I think this was a satisfying experiment in losing control with very watery gouache and some creamy application too, a bit of finger painting, and some search for colors in white. I see that I enjoyed looking for the light and finding edges. And will try to paint lilacs next season again! 

Drawing lilac with a friend.

I almost missed the lilac season - but thankfully, my regular drawing with a friend came to the rescue! We had a few days of warm weather during the week of this outing, and lilacs wilted faster than I expected. But I still got a couple of pages of them in my sketchbook! I enjoyed mixing gouache colors and painting with a dip pen and fingers. Also - having a good hour of chatting with a friend, being sniffed by passing dogs, smelling the flower of my childhood (my grandparents had a large white lilac bush, and my other grandmother planted a purple lilac bush for me under her window when I was little).

Sketchbook #113: Lilac

I enjoyed this wonderful bouquet for almost two weeks before it found it's new home in a compost bin. It kept me company through many meals and teas. But I did not draw it enough.

Sketchbook #113: Lilac and Look at My Sketchbook in Unedited format.

I was super excited to find first lilac of the season in March and spent some time sitting by the bush and painting. People were passing me by and one of them made a comment and then did not go away. This happens sometimes - people hang around as I work and I usually don't pay attention. But then this guy started working on the bush and I realized that this is HIS LILAC :) We started talking, he shared some info about hummingbirds nests that were on my mind lately and I ended up getting a couple of amazing branches as a present :)


My sketchbooks live in my bag and get quite a bit of beating, in addition to this I like to keep all my sketches in the same place - so I end up taping / glueing / sticking in /making envelopes etc. to keep everything in one place. This is why my sketchbooks sometimes look like this (this is an unedited scan) :)

I will try and make a video flipping through some of them soon :)

Sketchbook #103: Treasures

Sketchbook #95: Lilac

Lilac in Hidden Villa

Amazing lilac bushes in Hidden Villa made me (almost) come in into someone's private garden :)


I picked up the idea of drawing with highlighters from Richard Câmara and now cannot stop using them :)
 

April 2014: Lilac Season

Lilacs were part of every spring when I was a kid. All colors, all kinds - they were everywhere.


And I finally tracked down their season in California :)

April 2014: I found a House with a Real Lilac Bush