1303 Pink Pearls on a Velvet Cushion
Botanical Illustration. Artist Code: 1303. Completed 10 June 2013. Original water colour on Aquarelle Arches 100% hot pressed cotton rag paper. Unframed size 9” x 12”. Donated to Fund Raiser for Alzheimers.
Rhododendron ‘Pink Pearl’. This painting was selected by the Luton Hoo Walled Garden team to promote the Society of Botanical Artists Arts Butanical Exhibition, October-November 2013. [View Screenshot of feature] on the LutonToday Website (Luton News Herald & Post) captioned: ‘A delicate painting by botanical artist Tina Bone’.
This picture came about because by chance I saw an advertisement in Artists & Illustrators Magazine at the end of May 2013 regarding a call for entries for The Sunday Times Watercolour Competition 2013. It looked rather prestigious so I thought I might make a submission. I popped outside to my little wild garden and noticed the beautiful pink rhododendron was just coming into flower. (This tree has been moved around in the garden so many times, and I cut it back harshly every year, it is a wonder it is still alive let alone flowering!). A title came into my head immediately: ‘Pink Pearls on a Velvet Cushion’ and I imagined a sprig of these lovely pink flowers sitting on a velvet cushion with a bit of gold braid. I spent the next ten days beavering away and managed to submit the painting online within a few hours of the deadline—and this is the first time I have actually replicated on paper the picture that was in my head! Unfortunately, the painting did not reach the contest finals, but I thoroughly enjoyed designing and painting it.
Poem:
Outside the spring had long been coming,
winter’s cold refused to yield,
Then suddenly the bees were humming,
and bursting buds released their shield,
A pinky, pearly frilly swathe,
in late spring sunshine nicely bathed,
I sat it on a cushion fine,
and painted to my heart’s design.
This painting was also featured in the publicity brochure online for the Luton Hoo Walled Garden Exhibition run by the Society of Botanical Artists in October 2013.
