IT'S ALL ABOUT FLOWERS...AND MY VISIT TO THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDENS

 Hello dear friends! 

Welcome to another section of the Saturday blog, so get ready because this post will be quite long because I have a lot of photos.

I've been working nonstop on the painting of the vase-shaped snake and the peonies and camellias, and it's progressing very well. The snake is now ready, and even though I don't like vipers, I've really enjoyed creating the scales.

Painting flowers is one of my favorite things, although sometimes it can be a bit complicated, especially when I want something that doesn't look so abstract. But in the end, I'm always happy with the result. In my torture of indecision about whether I want realism or abstraction, I find a happy medium. For the peonies and camellias, I ended up using fairly loose brushstrokes, and they even seem familiar to Van Gogh's, with all those lines and spots that I loved.

The flowers changed quite a bit from start to finish, and this time I worked on different areas at the same time, allowing the oil to dry a bit and allowing me to work again. This frustrates me, but at the same time, it helps me be more skillful and multitask.

Here I show you part of the evolution. 

For the background, the background is another story...the background is in a super dark color with black and light colored veils that mix together and the truth is it was quite complicated in oil because the colors on a black background ended up disappearing and that was a mess, but in the end I managed to rescue the tones and make them even more visible than I thought and I liked the result.

Taking a day off from painting but not being immersed in flowers, I visited the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Every year I like to go before summer arrives and the heat wreaks havoc on the walks, so I couldn't have been more inspired by so many flowers, especially peonies and roses.

The garden is divided into several sections and here I share a bunch of photos of my favorites.

I visited the house of Henry Shaw, who was garden owner. The Italian Renaissance villa was designed by the firm of Barnett and Peck in 1849 as the country home for Henry Shaw. Shaw named the house "Tower Grove" because of its prominent tower and grove of sassafras trees. The house is made of brick and stone covered by stucco.

Shaw made Tower Grove his permanent residence in 1851 to oversee his plans for an extensive garden on his property.

The house is located on the grounds of the Missouri Botanical Gardens and was designated a City Landmark in 1971.

Garden founder Henry Shaw not only died on the grounds, but remains here to this day, buried in a mausoleum just a few steps from his country home.

This week at the entrance to my studio, I finally saw the beautiful pink and white peonies blooming like fluffy marshmallows. I picked some to put in my window. I enjoyed the long grass...I love long grass. During a walk, I came across some beautiful red samaras that I took home to maybe make jewelry with.

Has been a blessed week and I recharge every time into nature, no mater if its only being barefoot at my garden while I see the flowers and the grass or if I visit some places. I feel very fortunate to be able to love and respect nature and to find beauty and inspiration even with the most simple leaf because for me it's wonderful!

May your days be filled with nature, beauty and inspiration.

LOVE!