Beauty All Around

Today is an anomaly of beautiful Florida weather--it's chilly, breezy, solid cloud cover, spits of rain here and there. In one word: yucky. It's the kind of day I'll brew some herbal tea and sip it with hands clasped around the cup's warmth. Fortunately for those of us who live here? This, too, shall pass. And it usually does quite quickly. In the meantime, here I sit blogging away to bring my own bit of Florida sunshine to an otherwise gloomy day.

In June we moved into a nice rental house. It's only a couple of miles from where we used to live so there wasn't too much adjustment on everyone's part from moving. Not sure how long we'll be here or where we'll go next, but in the meantime, it's a very nice house. One of my favorite things here are the three flowering shrubs at the back of the property. One is a double hibiscus, and I'm not sure what the names of the other two are. I do know that they're pretty. And the fuchsia red flowering shrub loves to attract butterflies. Each shrub in its own way provides numerous opportunities for beautiful photographs. These photos, in turn, give me inspiration for paintings.

Who wouldn't be inspired by this? I love the way the light falls on the distant wing.

One important lesson I've learned about taking photos and painting works of art is that it's all about light and shadows; i.e., the contrast. It's what separates an okay picture from one that is so stunning you can't take your eyes off of it. In paintings, the artist can manipulate this aspect. Photos? Not so much. Either the sun is shining or it isn't. And I'm not that talented of an artist to know how to manipulate my painting by knowing exactly where the sun is and where the shadows would therefor fall. So I rely heavily on my photos.

I can't wait to paint this one, especially to capture the glow inside the trumpet of the flower on the right.

I love to study the flowers themselves, too--how the petals come together, the sepals and stamens. When I load the photos onto my computer, I love how I can blow up the tiniest flower to see all the intricate details. I wonder if this is how God sees His creations?

This photo makes me feel kinda like I'm looking through butterfly's eyes, and its view as it readies itself to land and draw nectar.

Sometimes, simple leaves are just as beautiful, too ... the way parts of them are exposed to the light while other parts play hide and seek in the shadows. Below is a watercolor that I painted based on several photos I had taken of crape myrtle leaves. This piece also was accepted into a local art show. It's now hanging on the wall of my family room where I can see it everyday.

Below are three flowers from the same bush, the red double hibiscus that I mentioned at the beginning of this blog post. It amazes me how different it looks when it's placed against three separate backgrounds. As an artist, I'll probably do three paintings just to capture these differences. I love the play of shadows that intensifies the red, but I also love how you can see the make up of the flower depending on how you're viewing it, especially the intricacies of the petals in the second photo.

A funny story about the double hibiscus ... squirrels love them. To eat. It must be the most delicious treat to the little nutters because if I want to take photos of a blooming hibiscus, I have to get out there, fast. If I don't, the flower's remnants--and not much, I might add--will be on the ground. I have a photo somewhere of a squirrel sitting on top of our pool cage tearing through one of these flowers like it's the squirrel's last meal on earth. He had ripped the flower from the bush and then high-tailed up on top of the screen so he could enjoy the meal uninterrupted. Talk about al fresco dining.

I don't know what part of the world you live in, but I hope you've enjoyed seeing a bit of the beauty we're blessed with here in Florida all year round. My day has certainly brightened just looking at these photos once more. The last photo is my version of Florida yellow sun personified. If the clouds have won over the day, maybe the sun got the last laugh in pouring some of its yellow brilliance into flowers down here on earth.