Hypericum

Did I mention it was hot?! I noticed, after my last post, that I've been complaining about the heat in nearly every post. Well, today we got cool air and rain - and what a relief! It wasn't so long ago I would have loved that heat and non-stop sunshine but not any more. I guess I spent too many years in the Middle East and the novelty wore off! (Actually, it's probably old age but I prefer the other version...)

Anyway, last weekend, when it was still baking, I painted these lovely berries, sitting at the kitchen table. I don't buy a lot of cut flowers but just at the moment there are some really interesting things around. I bought an unusual bunch which included these and set about painting them. Trouble is, the heat gets to me as quickly as it does the flowers so I only got one little painting done before everything faded. I planned to do three or four little sketches of the different flowers but spent too much time trying to rescue this one. I really enjoyed the berries and their lovely little leaves, but the two larger leaves are a bit of a disaster! I knew I should have just left them unfinished in pencil to highlight the berries, but I thought I needed the practice. A lot of layers later, and they are just about presentable but I really should have planned ahead, done one thing or the other, not piled on wash after wash and completely over-worked them. Then I got a bit of staining blue paint on my finger which I transferred to the paper and had to do a blue background to cover it up!

Not that it's a big deal - this is another page in my little Moleskine that has now become a sort of plant diary. I like that a theme is developing but it's also where I'm trying out things and learning so I'm not too worried about the end results.

I don't normally worry about the names of things either but I was interested to find out more about where these are from, and having got the name, I realise we have some growing in the garden! I'm not sure we have the same variety but I shall be checking to see what the berries look like when it's finished flowering!