Since the new theme of Happy Gardens paintings is about tranquillity in the garden I felt the next painting I did should feature just one, calming, colour of white. I think white gardens are very peaceful, and I wanted to emulate that peacefulness in this painting.
I had one photo that I’d taken whilst on holiday in Kent that I liked a lot and wanted to work from. But it hadn’t got a pond in it. And it also had other things within it that weren’t helping the composition I was after.
So this painting had far more artistic licence than the previous two paintings.
I loved the pale blue bench since it would harmonise with the pale blues in the pool I was going to offset with it. I also wanted the white agapanthus in the painting since they are architecturally such pretty flowers in the way the curved leaves lean in various gentle directions, the long elegant stems have their beautiful flowers on top of them, and they always remind me of hot summery days in the southern counties. I also wanted the small pool to feature white water lilies with only three of the flowers out since three flowers look far more appealing in a small place than a lot, I feel. I also wanted the pool to have a pale stone edging so that the viewer could imagine walking around it, and peering into its mysterious dark depths before walking on to the bench beyond it and sitting looking back at the tranquil peaceful garden. The pale terracotta pathway was a good balance with the white flowers and pale blue bench, adding warmth to the picture. I also made the hedge behind the bench darker and more solid than it was in my photo since it would made the whites stand out more luminously against it. I also didn’t give the pond too many reflections, otherwise the viewer would have missed the importance of the three white water lilies.
I painted a few white blossoms scattered on the pathway as I think scattered blossoms are so pretty.
Parts of this painting are in full focus, like the bench, the pond and the agapanthus in the foreground, but the rest of the picture is in soft focus adding to the important parts but not detracting from them. I love the curve of the pond edging as it leads you around to the bench, and I adore the soft curves of the plants leading you to it. I find this painting very harmonious and its been one of my favourites to create.
This painting is in acrylics on canvas and measures 23.5 x 19.75 and was easy to name.. “Echoes of white”.