Kalanchoe and Blood Bath
Posted: February 26, 2018 Filed under: Uncategorized 26 CommentsI spent a bit of time at the Montreal Botanical Gardens yesterday. The humid air and the plethora of vegetation was a welcome change from the grey weather we’ve been having in Montreal. It would have been nice to sketch in the butterfly exhibit but it was too crowded. Fortunately there are plenty of benches in the other greenhouses, as long as you don’t mind a constant drip on the back of your neck from the overhead sprinklers.
I sketched in both the cactus display and the orchid room. These sketches are in no way botanical illustrations — simply a bit of paint thrown on paper to reflect my joy at being surrounded by all of this exotic beauty.
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
Simply lovely. The colors are so fresh and lively. I feel like I was there.
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Thanks Lynn.
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Your joy is very clear in your painting. I love the exotic blooms. I would have enjoyed being there — yesterday was so dismal here. But when the storm passed, the sky was magnificent. I tried to capture it on paper but was unsuccessful.
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Hi Alison, It was a joyful day. Next time we should go together, although it will be a lot of driving for you. You would have really enjoyed the greenery.
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Beautiful orchids Shari! Yesterday I was at the Botanical Gardens too. Yes, very crowded for the butterflies, I wonder if a weekday would be more “sketcher friendly”
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Too bad we didn’t see each other Minerva, but if you were in the butterfly garden at the same time as us there would have been no guarantee of running into each other. It was so packed! But quite magical with all those butterflies.
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these flowers are exquisite. Line quality, colour accuracy and delight transmission!
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Many thanks Tylara!
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Great to see the liveliness of life at this time of year when grey overshadows all around me. Your botanical sketches are wonderful.
Yesterday we had periodic glimpses of color when the sun peeked through.
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Thanks Bernadette. The days are getting longer and we will all have some colour soon enough, I’m sure.
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So beautiful! I wish your blog had a big Like button.
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Maybe we can suggest that to WordPress!
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I got exotic flowers for my birthday, so I am loving the beauty of yours! They were so strange, I was afraid to paint them…
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Dee, happy birthday. I hope you got around to painting the flowers!
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OMG!!! So SO Lovely!! Can we please have MORE?!?!
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HI Peggy, Yes, I will have to go back to paint more of these. Too bad the gardens are all the way on the other side of Montreal! Hope you are well.
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Lovely seems to be the best word.I love sketches of this type. And the colors of the orchids. I miss the cacti when we lived in NM. At the time, I didn’t think to paint them. How about the names of the orchids!! Wouldn’t want a quiz on them.
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Many thanks Judy. It was a great day at the gardens.
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These are so lovely! As you said, they are not botanical illustrations, but instead they have a fresh energy that botanical illustrations would miss!
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Much appreciated!
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Gorgeous colours and shapes!
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Thanks Leslie!
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Sometimes our joy in being someplace with beautiful things around us is liberating. I love the splashy look to the page with the orchids and that your petals look like they were mostly done wet-into-wet. Nice freshness to these!
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It was liberating Joan. And fun to paint with a bit of wild abandon.
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Dear Shari,
You are such an inspiration to me. I am an orchid lover, belong to the San Diego Orchid Society (heavily involved; in charge of ribbon jugding for our 4 shows a year). Your style of painting is so lovely. I am just crazy about it. Today’s paintings were THE BEST!!!! I am hoping to join one of your workshops next year. Just thought I’d tell you how MUCH I LOVE your artwork.
Your daily friend,
Pam Peters
Pampeters2@gmail.com
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Hi Pam,
Wow, I was so thrilled to read an email from a lover of orchids. Especially glad you liked these since they are very interpretive and not very exact. Glad you like the work. I am going to add you to my mailing list because one of these days I will be doing workshops on the West Coast, hopefully!
Best,
Shari
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