Hi another Thursday so another blog. One of the great things about living in the UK is the ever changing weather, and our ability to talk about it. Today it seems as though normal service has been resumed, Spring in England. A mixture of sunshine and showers and an abundance of flowers. The intense heat of last week has gone and I am constantly checking the skies to make sure my washing stays dry!! However my garden is changing daily too, no sooner does one bloom die back than another grabs my attention.
Today is VE day, but as humans we haven't learnt a lot from previous wars, war is raging in Europe, across the Middle East, and other lesser known conflicts are being fought right now with countless victims caught up in them. I think we have all come to realise how vulnerable and small we are in this big wide world, but by living in the present and enjoying a cup of tea or a glorious sunset we can put our minds at ease.
I keep coming back to a favourite poem 'The peace of wild things' by Wendell Berry, these lines stay with me especially
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
so with this in mind I thought I would show you again how I paint a bumble bee. I love to watch them buzzing around, resting on a flower then moving to the next. I add them to so many paintings and they give me peace.
First I draw them , and mark the yellow from the black bits.
make sure you are using good quality brushes that come to a good point.
I like to use Indian yellow for the yellow parts of the bee, and then I darken one side , with a touch of cadmium orange and burnt sienna.
Can you see i have gone over the lines ...here is where you have to be in control of the amount of water. I want the back parts of the bee to merge with the yellow, giving that fuzzy look.
I am using paynes grey for the black, with cerulean blue for the highlights.
There is a spot on the bee where the sunlight hits it.
Now I carefully add some shadow to the white at the end of the buff tailed bumble bee, and carefully add a head and some antennae.
The wings are done on this bee with Yellow ochre and a dry brush. I also add some detail with some burnt sienna
I also carefully paint the little legs.
Finally, when it is dry i rub out the pencil lines and add some varnish for the wings and some gold ink for the pollen
i love watching bees, and I love painting them. i hope you can find some beauty in the world around you this week , and may even be inspired to get some of it down on paper
2 comments
Hello! I received my beautiful limited edition bee painting yesterday and it is exquisite and so colorful! It arrived in perfect condition – I was hopeful it would even while traveling so far from the UK to the US… thank you! My husband and I love it!
Beautiful! I love Bees too! As a gardener I often down tools to watch them rolling in the pollen. I haven’t painted one for a while but you have inspired me. A good idea using cerulean for the light!