Summer is coming and it’s lovely to see all the Agapanthus in our garden starting to raise new flower heads and turn the borders lilac. While we have lots of spikes there are only a couple that are in their full ball shape and most are just green spikes with lots of promise. Amongst these are one or two that are just bursting out and don’t have their trumpet shaped flowers open yet.
I have been experimenting with these today, wondering how I can capture the bright colours and simple shapes to good effect. In real life the colours definitely stand out best against a dark background but I think the heads are too complicated to paint around them.
So I began by trying something different – the first two trials were done to find out whether I could paint a background first and then lift out the Agapanthus from it. The fist wasn’t at all successful, much too wet…. but the second shows a bit of promise, although the buds still aren’t bright enough. Maybe a different paper would help and I now have some Bockingford that might work well (thanks Mum & Dad :-)). Otherwise, while I was hoping to avoid masking fluid perhaps it would be the best solution this time.
The most successful and recognisable trial was the last one (bottom left) where I got disheartened with it all and just painted it on a white background 🙂 (just to prove I could).