Flowers in Watercolour

'Bougainvillea'
watercolour by Eileen Gidman

As February contains Valentine's Day, I couldn't resist painting flowers and I seemed to be drawn to painting them in pinks. Although the Shasta Daisy is white, surrounding it with pink gives it a soft and romantic feel. With the Bougainvillea flowers, I did both a detailed study as well as a grouping of them. By keeping the upper flowers light, the focus remains on the lower more detailed image.

Although Bougainvillea are beautiful, the vines contain a lot of thorns. The flowers are actually the 3 little white clusters that are surrounded by the pink bracts as shown in the image in the lower left corner. Other plant colours include magenta, purple, red, orange, white or yellow.

'Daisy'

watercolour by Eileen Gidman

While the Oxeye Daisy is the native plant, the above is a cultivated Shasta Daisy which has larger flower heads. It was lots of fun to draw with the many varied shapes to the petals.