More botanicals by Paula

I started this painting in the workshop I took last weekend and finished it this weekend. Our native Bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) is a vine that often grows on fence rows along country roads. What I learned recently is that it has an evil twin (Celastrus orbiculatus), an oriental version that is very invasive here. The difference is the native plant has blossoms and seeds on the tips of branches (like in the painting) and the invasive one has smaller blooms and seeds in denser clumps all along the stem. 

This is a cluster of seed pods from the Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata). This tree used to be in the gardens at Historic Kenmore but had to be taken down this summer so I was glad I had saved these pods from last fall. I used Fabriano hot press paper for these two but it seemed softer than what I had used before. The edges of the paint seem a little blurry. Perhaps it had less sizing than before.
I sketched both of these before I painted them but I'm still working on the sketch book pages.