Art Adventures - by Patricia Banks©
Published March 2023 in Nanaimo Magazine and Voyager Mag
Published March 2023 in Nanaimo Magazine and Voyager Mag
Pacific trilliums are coming up and their gorgeous white blooms punctuate the deep greens of the local native forests and parks! These beautiful three petalled, flowers stand tall and are abundant in western North America in early spring. In keeping with this year’s painting plan, I am indulging my long-standing love affair with flowers, by painting many of our local wildflowers as they emerge from winter hibernation under the soil. March heralds the arrival of this beauty, a spring showstopper that is truly not to be missed!
Trillium flowers begin a brilliant white colour and become pink to mauve as they mature. This plant’s striking anatomy includes three large leaves - looking like a tri-leaf with a flower in the center, with three slender green sepals and three large white petals with a warm yellow center. Trillium means “three-parted lily.” It is said to symbolize purity, beauty, and recovery. Each of the three flower petals can often be from one-half inch to almost three inches in length. So, a large flower can grow up to eight inches in diameter. Elegant and fragile, it is best to refrain from picking the flowers, as picking them will cause the entire plant to die.
Painting white flowers realistically and making them look authentic, is an artistic challenge. Anyone who has painted the walls in their home “off-white” will know there are an unending variety of shades of white. Careful observation of shapes, shadows and study of the effects of light at different times of the day is necessary. As warm colours appear to move forward and cool colours appear to recede, understanding of plant anatomy is also important. This knowledge and experience gives an artist clues as to which white colour goes where when creating a potential masterpiece. Happy Painting!
Painting white flowers realistically and making them look authentic, is an artistic challenge. Anyone who has painted the walls in their home “off-white” will know there are an unending variety of shades of white. Careful observation of shapes, shadows and study of the effects of light at different times of the day is necessary. As warm colours appear to move forward and cool colours appear to recede, understanding of plant anatomy is also important. This knowledge and experience gives an artist clues as to which white colour goes where when creating a potential masterpiece. Happy Painting!
