Magnolia macrophylla

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I took a workshop this weekend with Lara Call Gastinger and painted this Magnolia macrophylla leaf. I've discovered a bit of a passion for botanical art but I did sketch this in my book first. This magnolia is huge. Some of its leaves are about 3 feet long and the blossoms are gigantic. This tree in in the Wilderness Walk at Historic Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg, VA (where I work). The tree is surrounded by other huge specimens and has to fight for sunlight. As a result the blossoms are often near the top of the tree and all we can see are the undersides. Last year, one bloomed low enough to see and it knocked me out. The common name for the is the Umbrella Tree and for good reason. It almost seems bizarre. I used watercolor on Fabriano Hot Press paper. The leaf and painting of it are about 16 inches long (tall). I painted it horizontally but when someone turned it during the critique, we all decided it was better this way.

End of Summer

As summer in Virginia begins to draw to a close, I often cut some flowers and leaves to bring inside to extend the season as much as possible. I'm working through Kate's online watercolor pencil short class and decided to work with them in my sketchbook. It was fun layering the colors to try to match that coleus. The sweet potato vine was too light to show up in the scan so I enhanced it a bit in PhotoShop so you could see it. I also added the text in PS because I hadn't written anything on the actual page. I want to look up the Latin names and make sure I have the right coleus name. I'm realizing the black line on the left is a bit distracting but it's the ribbon in my sketchbook.

August 28--the day after Irene

Sometimes we forget about the small things. I found this poor fellow clinging to a branch unable to fly after being totally battered by the hurricane. All I could do was document his demise.
Paula in post-earthquake/hurricane Virginia