March - hellebores
Hellebores are some of the earliest plants to flower in my garden. If you lift their drooping heads they reveal the detail of their speckled and blotched centres. The flowers range from deep plum to snowy white rising up from clumps of leathery leaves and making me feel that summer is on it’s way at last.
April - Primroses
There was only one clump of primroses when we moved in. Year by year they have flourished, spreading around and into the lawn and shadier beds. Now every April they open their gentle gold flowers with shy exuberance. I pick a few to bring the subtle scent into the house and enjoy their sunny faces. William Blake’s poem from Auguries of Innocence features in the calligraphy border around this painting conveying how I often feel when looking closely at the natural world.
May - Tulips
I never used to like tulips, associating them with the stiff, municipal bedding arrangements I grew up with in the 1970s. I’ve changed my mind! Some of today’s tulips are fabulous - the fleshly voluptuous La Belle Epoque, frilly Parrot varieties, striped and streaked and gorgeous colours make me want to go back to painting them again and again. They are even more interesting as the petals fade, twisting into contorted shapes. Every autumn I look forward to leafing through bulb catalogues and imagining the spring displays and potential watercolours.
June - Roses
Munstead Wood - deep saturated magenta velvet flowers unfurl from a perfect tight bud slowly unwrapping a profusion of gorgeously scented folds until the weight bows down their opulent burgundy-drenched heads and fat petals fall softly to earth…