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The Echinaceas or cone flowers in bloom in the garden at the moment are a deep, deep pink colour and are looking gorgeous. I wonder whether they're deeper pink because of the fact that there has been so little rain this year? That sounds really fanciful I know, but I have noticed that flowers change their hue from year to year, particularly clematis and that may be due in part to the weather conditions.
Anyway...I am going to do Late Summer flowers for my workshop in September and thought these might be a good subject.
I've tended to avoid painting them because I couldn't see how I could get the tonal contrast with the back ground. And pink is a difficult colour to paint successfully. So today I had a go. Still don't relish the pink but I loved rendering the form of the flowers with their twisty turny petals. The centres are a bit of a challenge too. They become more cone like as the season progresses and at the moment they are quite flat. Fascinating geometric form within the centres...hopeless trying to get that with watercolour so it's a question of summarising and giving an impression.
