Fifty shades of pinky blue.....

Cobalt Blue, Quinacridone Magenta, Cobalt Violet, Winsor Blue, Permanent Rose, French Ultramarine....who knew so many colours were in one flower?  

I was awake at 6.30am and the sun was shining so I decided to get up.  I'm so glad I did as I definitely got the most out of the longest day (how can we be at mid-summer already?!)

This morning I watched a Skillshare tutorial by an artist I really admire.  I've been trying to watch it for ages but it's two hours long and I wanted to watch it all in one go.  This morning was the first chance I've had to enjoy it in full with no interruptions.

At midday David headed off to play golf at Leven with Keith.  I had a quick lunch of a toasted bagel with cream cheese then, inspired by this morning's painting tutorial, I headed to the studio to tackle a subject I've wanted to paint for a long time, hydrangea flowers.  

I had a lovely time really studying the shapes and colours of the petals and working out the base colours of each flowerhead.  It turns out that the bluish flowers have pink undertones and the pinkish flowers have blue undertones, which explains why my first washes show opposite shades to  my reference photo.  

I am learning patience in my work.  Previously I would have been caught up in the need to finish this piece, wanting to carry on especially since I was having such a lovely time, but I know that road leads to ruin and impatience in the past has led to many of my paintings being abandoned or binned!  So I stopped today while the going was good and was shocked to see I had been in the studio for five hours!  

Slow and steady definitely wins the race though, and it's lovely to be in a position where I am looking forward to planning and working on the next stage of the painting and accepting that it will be finished when it's finished, whenever that may be :-)

It's also a departure from my usual preference for a loose, random, semi-abstract style of painting and I have to say I am surprised at how much I am enjoying being in control of the paint!  Perhaps I'm a control freak after all NO SH*T SHERLOCK! :-))

This evening I received a text from the only other Kate Bush Obsessive in my life (Alan who was the electrician on our building job in 2016 and who's become a good friend) to tell me that Our Beloved Kate will be on Women's Hour tomorrow morning!  WOW!  We are amazed at how vocal she's been about this whole world domination of RUTH, and is obviously enjoying the attention it's receiving.  So unlike her but wonderful to behold.  Will she be announcing a new album in the Autumn?  We fervently hope so!  

In February, when we booked tickets to go and see Cloudbusting next week, I could never have dreamt that Kate would be achieving world domination with a song originally released in 1985.  Mandy (singer in Cloudbusting) has been interviewed multiple times on TV and the radio over the past 10 days.  It was always going to be a brilliant night, but this is the cherry on the cake!  :-)))

PS The painting I completed yesterday that is being used as the basis for a birthday party invitation for two little girls, has now been seen by my friend's client who commissioned it (after my friend skilfully turned it into a printable invitation :-) and she loves it.  Phew!!!