Lily

I saw this rather handsome plant in a local garden centre whilst looking for something else entirely, so naturally I bought the specimen and it is now trying to survive (and I hope thrive!) in my garden. It is a rather different shape to the lilies that I drew many years ago when I first joined my art group – this one is a Calla Lily (Zantedeschia Aethiopica) which is apparently native to Southern Africa.

I decided to paint the plant using acrylics in order to show the bold colours of the flowers, and so I set to work with the pallet knives as usual. The result was a disaster, so I tried again with brushes – naively assuming that applying paint with bristles would be easier than using the blade of a palette knife. In the end it was easier, but only just. Not least this was because in our current spell of exceptionally hot weather I let the paint dry out too fast on my palette! However, I guess this weather is probably good for the lily …