I wish I could say that I was as passionate a flower arranger as I am a gardener, but I'm afraid to watch me make the attempt, you'd likely think I was wrestling the blooms into submission rather than celebrating a creative act. Maybe one day I will learn, but at present, my arrangements are pretty tenuous, and they only  look ok as long as you don't look at the back! But I have these great blooms right now in my garden from my massive Limelight Hydrangea, and I have been really wanting to capture them in paint before they are done for the season.

The shrub itself is far larger than I imagined it would be for my space (probably topping out at 8 or 9 feet by now) , but then that is true of just about everything in my garden! The blooms start out a lovely creamy white, and then turn a gorgeous lime green tinged with pink by season's end. Then the other day while shopping I saw these sunflowers lined up like happy little children, so I grabbed a bunch to add to the mix, and an arrangement was born.

It's been a while since I have painted a floral, but I really feel it's so important to regularly practice working from life, and it's been raining an awful lot this last week. So, with fall lurking just around the corner and my flower garden in its final days, I finally felt inspired to give it a go. (Better late than never, I guess!) Here, below,  is the initial block-in on my 24x20" linen canvas.

This is about 3 hours' work. I try not to get too detailed yet, but I have my basic pattern down so that I can jump right in when I return to the easel.