Wednesday 12 March 2008

Poppy pods



Illustration Friday's topic this week is 'Garden'.
I've put up a watercolour I did of poppy pods and flowers.
I think I love the pods just as much as the flowers.
They are so sculpural and tough compared to the whimsical delicacy of their flowers.



These are a couple of photo-studies I took of pods that I collected the seeds from last year.
I must remember to scatter them soon for this years crop.
It's a very fine balance between dead heading to keep the plant flowering and knowing when to leave the pod so that the seeds have time to mature.
For example all my Sweet pea pods were either empty or rotten by the warm wet weather we had at the end of last autumn because I was too greedy for flowers and kept picking them:)

15 comments:

Rui Sousa said...

Great, really great!

Janice Ykema said...

the vibrancy of your colours makes this painting, I'm quite the poppy fan myself. Though I didnt know that about the pods,seeds n stuff.

Selya said...

beautiful!

Anonymous said...

beautiful colors!!!!

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful watercolor, I love those colors and wet washes. It's so vibrant!

Kathleen Rietz said...

Nice. Brings back childhood memories of my mom and me collecting the pods in her garden.

Keeley Nolan said...

This is gorgeous! I love the vibrancy of colors you used. =)Also I wanted to thank you for the nice comment you left me.

Anonymous said...

Flowers... I thought they would be easy in watercolour until I tried! You've done a great job. I like how you've managed to get the sunlight and the shade on the flower on the right. When I tried painting a red hibiscus, that's what I tried to achieve, but I jut couldn't get it.

RyanLoghry said...

I like that painting, it's got a lot of depth. I really feel like there is a back side to that flower in the forefront, on the right. A lot of watercolors while pretty, seem flat to me. Great job. I love the intricate pattern on the top of the seed pod in the photo, it looks like a sliced up pie. Great post!

janie said...

Thanks everybody, great comments, very encouraging.

Anonymous said...

This is Gorgeous!! I love the way you used the colors and light!!

Cathy said...

What a delicious, seductive use of colour ... I love it!

Bee said...

Love the way you have captured this scene in such vibrant and fluid watercolour.

Robyn Sinclair said...

Beautiful colours and play of light on that front poppy. I love structure of pods too, I've painted them more than poppies.

Calder said...

Beautiful beautiful painting there, wow!

Smiles!
RJ