Before today, I’ve shied away from paintings flowers. I was intimidated by them, especially roses. Here is my one and only flower painting. (From our Dogwood tree.)

Today, as I was setting up my watercolors, The Company Store catalog caught my eye. I love all the bright patterns in that catalog. On the cover was a graphic flower pattern. It inspired me and I decided to paint flowers. I was probably less intimated because the pattern wasn’t realistic looking flowers.

I really enjoy “warming up” with watercolor (as I like to call it). On my days off, once the lunches are packed, I setup. Once the kids are gone and the house is quiet, I sit and paint with my cup of coffee. More than once I’ve accidentally cleaned my brush in my coffee!

Today, as I sat to paint flowers, I decided I’d let the brush do the work. Instead of painting the petal, I just touched the brush to the paper and pulled it up, or in some cases swiped a little. I guess I was channeling that “one stroke flower” painting technique. I even tried having one end of the brush wetter than the other, so the petal was a little different on each end. I was getting the hang of it. It was so fun. Later, when I came home from running errands, I sat and painted more flowers.