Azaleas in Bloom on Canvas

©Dora Sislian Themelis, paint on the palette at the Instagram post

With the lavender azaleas in bloom in my garden the love affair with color is in full bloom too. Every year at this time the azaleas begin their amazing, show stopping performance. By Memorial Day the petals start to fade and drop, but up until then they are glorious to behold.

The jaw dropping lavender blooms pop out all over the pale green bushes. With the bright green of the grass underneath and the strong yellow sunlight streaking across the lawn, there's nothing more dramatic to see. It's an event I anticipate every spring, and they do not disappoint.

Virus, or no virus, this is happening! And so I painted them once again.

On the easel..

Having started to paint in the garden, en plein aire, the weather changed and I came in to work in the studio. It was refreshing to paint using these amazing colors. The paints were new handmade oils from Michael Harding and I was happy to get to use these colors. I took some reference photos to use indoors which came in handy.

The painting of lavender azaleas

Finishing this work was quick with large brushes, lots of paint, quick decisions and good color mixing. I used a nice size canvas at 24x18, but not so big as to have to keep working for too long. That could spell disaster when I overwork things.

Now that this is finished, I'm on to the next work.