Flowers on Verbenum 1

This is my first watercolour painting. We were going on holiday to stay in a cottage in mid-Wales. I'd thought I'd take some acrylic paints and paper with me but my partner had other ideas. We'll paint in watercolours, she told me. Oh, ok, then! She gave me a quick lesson. Lighter colours first before darker ones. But I only have one way of holding a brush, so have painted in the same way.

I didn't know what a verbenum looked like. The cottage we were staying in is attached to a Quaker meeting house. During meeting for worship one Sunday, a friend noted that there were still flowers on the verbenum in September! Two days later, it was raining and a perfect excuse to sit and paint the flowers on the verbenum with the knoll of the hill behind.

When we returned home, we ended up buying two new trees, both verbena - a guelder rose and a wayfarer - and planting them in the Quaker Burial Ground Wildlife Community Garden, where we volunteer. We are looking with interest, as we go through the winter,  to see if they will both get through. We have hope! 

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As of November 2022, they are prospering!

I left the original on the table at Dolobran, delighted to hear that friends had framed it, along with that of my partner's, and hung them on walls at the cottage! My first exhibition..?!?

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