Another purple bouquet

I picked some purple flowers from my garden yesterday and sketched them in the last page of my sketchbook. Later on, when I looked back at the first page of the book, I realized that it was another purple bouquet. And when I checked the date of that drawing, I discovered that I started this book exactly a year ago today.

It was the first time I had tried a Hahnemuhle 100% cotton book, and I’ve been working in it ever since. I have both portrait and landscape versions in A4 format. I use the landscape one for urban/travel sketching and the portrait one for experimentation and drawing things around the house, like Alice, my wheelbarrow and lots of bouquets.

It’s really interesting to look back and see a compressed version of the year through the pages of the book. For example, I remember how crappy I felt on the day I sketched the windmill. I was recovering from COVID, and I think that’s reflected in the drab colours I used. Or how chilly it was in the house when I did the ice storm drawings. I was too cold to take out my watercolours so I drew in Micron pen.

I did a little video flip through of the book and posted it on Instagram, in case you’re curious to see what’s in between the two purple bouquets.


15 Comments on “Another purple bouquet”

  1. friedakam says:

    This is a lovely summery bouquet full of colour! By the way, I just bought your Craftsy courses about landscape and urban scapes. They are great!

  2. J L Hovde says:

    Wh

  3. Nice sketch, you really did a good job at the dappled look of the splatches.

  4. Sadje says:

    Beautiful

  5. Diamond Gabriel says:

    Fresh and pretty, taking my breath away for I love such simple and sweet yet elegant things!! Well done Shari!! Thank you for sharing.

  6. karim waked says:

    Prince would’ve loved this! 🙂😘

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  7. -N- says:

    Your flowers always delight! Your IG video is great – you should post it here, too, for all your fans!!

  8. Franceen says:

    So Very Lovely

  9. Donna Lafferty says:

    shari, for those of us who don’t use Instagram, could you post it on Youtube? Thank you. I always recommend your blog and classes.

  10. Linda Murray says:

    This is so lovely Shari! The flowers look so delicate and the different shades of purple are striking! 👍👏

  11. Judy Sopher says:

    Your flower paintings are always beautiful. I even took your class on flowers and still can’t seem to paint them well. Would love to see a picture of your garden.

    • Thanks Judy. My garden would never look very good in a photo. It has pockets of nice plants but the overall effect is not that great, except in early spring.

  12. Cindy says:

    Lovely bouquet! I love the looseness of the watercolor without losing the definition of each flower’s color and shape.

  13. JLR says:

    Beautiful!

    I’d love to see the rest of the book, but I don’t use IG. Here’s a second request to post it here for us non-IGers.

  14. Katie says:

    Beautiful and inspiring! I love your flip-through videos. I need to quit gardening and start drawing/painting the plants and flowers.


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