Indoor Efflorescence

My default indoor subject is flowers.  Blessedly, they are available for reasonable price.  Even though I prefer that all house plants flower, I patiently care for them during their leafy rest period.

The royalty among my plant family is an amaryllis who sends up a stem nearly 4 feet in height.  Her red and white lily-like blossoms are as big as my face. From the day the bud first starts to emerge, I am enchanted. At the start of Beginnings, the first Sketchbook Skool class taken in April 2014, she bloomed in all her magnificence.  Several of my first sketches featured her Royal Ms. Peppermint.

My real love is sketching outdoors and sometimes the weather does not cooperate or there are too many other things demanding attention. A moment of peace gazing at a flower is on time in time every time.

Currently in bloom is the exotic orchid pictured at right.  I found it in the Lakeshore Trader Joe's.  I had looked at the orchids many times but never found one I needed to take home until seeing this beauty.  As I was carrying it away, another customer remarked that it was a type of orchid that was very difficult to grow.  She knew it from visits to Hawaii and was momentarily flustered, unable to remember its name. The little sketch at right was the second done after it came home. Now all its buds are open.  It is the first store bought orchid which is fragrant, something watercolor cannot capture.



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