Flowering Quince or Japonica

Flowering Quince
8 x 10
oil on canvas

  One of the earliest plants to bloom here is what my grandmother (and therefore I) call japonica. Other people call it flowering quince. It is a beautiful red that stands out very bright against the greys of winter and the bright, light greens of winter grass.

The inspiration for my painting.

I went to paint in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens today with several of my friends  including Claudia Davis, Janis Weaver, Sara Ward, Candy Clynch, Hai Chi Lee and Dan Spangler. Some more of my friends and fellow artists  came walking through the garden to visit but they didn't paint today. I walked around for a while before deciding on some japonica bushes by a stream.

Hai chi and Dan painting.

 It was a beautiful day to be in the gardens today. There was a beautiful blue sky, and the temperature was in the 60s. In addition to the japonica, there were pansies, daffodils, forsythia, and Bradford pear trees blooming. It was the nicest place to paint. Doves were cooing, an owl was hooting, and the stream bubbled past.

Daffodils by the pond.

 As usual I did not finish my painting on location. There are a few things that I want to do after it dries a bit more, I want to darken the three small trees on the right side of the painting as well as add in some pieces of branches on the bushes. Then I will look and see what else it needs .

A flowering pear tree.

My goal was to be loose today. It isn't perhaps as loose as I would like but  I am satisfied with the start that I got on it.

A close up of the blossoms of the pear tree.

In addition to painting today I also sculpted . I have many works in progress but today I chose to work on my Limousin bull. I am pretty close to finished but I can always work some more on a piece.

A long row of turtles on a pipe in the semi drained pond.

I have had a great  week  with several sculpture sales and two shows starting next weekend, The Texas Masters Show at the Insight Gallery and Art Reach at Christ Chapel here in Fort Worth.

An urn full of pansies.

Life gets in the way!



                                 A view of part of the rose garden and stonework in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.                      This part of the gardens was created as a WPA project.

The view I chose to paint today of the pond and willow.

A  photo of me painting.



Cecilia Robertson painting; she chose an unusual view, and did a great job of it.



Blair Currin, Cecilia Robertson, and Candy Clynch

A very tiny frog passing by my painting location.

Koi in the big pond.

   Today we had a smaller number of artists painting with us in the gardens than we've had over the last few weekends. Sometimes life does get in the way. Most of our friends were doing other activities. Some were working a day job, vacationing, or doing family activities. But for those of us who went out to paint in the gardens today it was a great experience. 
   There is actually a lot color in the gardens right now but most of us have been sticking to the tree line near the big pond below the rose garden. Near the pond in the shade of the trees the temperature was very pleasant  and we even had a great breeze. This was a treat as today we reached our 26th day of triple digit temperatures. We stayed until after 11, but none of us finished. I will go back tomorrow and try to finish it , then add the image to this post. After we left the shade and made it back to our cars we went to La Madeline for lunch. Another enjoyable day creating art with friends.