I have been learning about lavender species the last few days. I decided to paint this extremely difficult flower in a posy with a wild rose. I discovered that each species seems to have its own peculiarities and subtleties which keeps them apart but which also binds them together as a whole. I decided to include the species ‘Hidcote’ because it has a beautiful dark purple-blue flower casing and a delicate flower of lighter shade with tiny-weeny yellow bits at the mouth of the trumpet (and in some cases a couple further down the shaft). ‘Munstead’ variety has a paler blue flower and the casings are green – and I suddenly noticed this morning that Hidcote has square stalks and Munstead round ones! Also the flowers on the stalks of Hidcote are in groups (mostly) of six – three buds each side of the stalk at alternating right angles – but Munstead appears to grow in whorls of different numbers. Hidcote is more compact on the stem, but Munstead lets it all go!
To help the design I felt that the beautiful light pink of wild rose would complement both varieties. Here is the first stage of painting (about three hours’ worth!). Please note these are photographs of the artwork rather than scans, so a little hazy. I hope you all have a nice day. 🙂
First Progress picture for 1607
1607 Progress 1 Close up view