After loving painting the white agapanthus in the “Echoes of White” painting I really wanted to paint the gorgeous blue ones, remembering them fondly in my Mums garden when she 
and my Dad moved to sunny Devon. I’ve always loved the bright vibrant cobalt blue of them and wanted them in a pale terracotta pot as a nice contrast to them.
Agapanthus are a joy and always make me smile and certainly a good challenge to paint with their long pointed floppy leaves and long elegant stems reaching up with the multi layered flower heads.
Since the theme for the basis of the garden was blue agapanthus and terracotta pots (in faded orange tones) I then wanted a large expanse of blue water with orange goldfish and adding to the theme some orange roses in the flower border leading to the pale blonde wood of the bench, and blue shadows under the clematis growing over the stone wall. So the whole painting would be a harmonious blue and orange throughout it.
The placing of the goldfish at the side of the stone slabs and gathering to the side as they interact with the viewer was important as was the way the lily pad leaves sat on the water and connected the two round terracotta pots across the pool. And just to add interest to the painting, having a rectangle terracotta pot up against the wall with purple flowers in it, that were picked up with the purple lavender plants at the side of the pathway leading the way to the bench at the end. Pink flowers in the border are also the colours of the clematis over the wall, adding interest to the harmonious dynamic feel of the painting as well.
I was really pleased with the terracotta pots and the way I got that realistic bloom of white in them. I also loved painting the stone wall, hinting at the flints within with flashes of deep burnt sienna in it to add to the warm feel of this painting whilst adding deep tones behind the blue agapanthus and pale sienna of the bench and making them stand out better in the painting.
The bench and water and agapanthus are in full detail but the additional plants to the side of the stone slabs, and the clematis, had to be slightly out of focus to not detract from the important aspects. The slabs themselves had to be pale peachy coloured and just hinted at, to lead the eye into the painting, for the viewer to want to go and sit on that bench and look back at the pool and the garden scene infront of them.
I also wanted the water in the pool to have the mysterious depths of blue in them, with the fish floating in its dark turquoise depths, and just a hint of pale blue in the surface of it. Too many reflections in the pond would have been more about the reflection of the sky than the water itself. As its the water that makes this painting pleasing, and makes you want to go and look into the liquid depths below.
This painting was easy to name as well, it’s called “Blue serenity” and is painted in acrylics on canvas and measures 36 x 24 inches as I wanted a nice large painting for this serene and peaceful painting.
I’m also really pleased about the creation of this painting as I used about five different source photos to pull the whole idea together, and I think it works really well and gets the message I wanted to capture for this lovely painting really well!