Balmerino woods are on the edge of the Tay, opposite the city of Dundee. It is a special place and has beautiful spring flowers that inspired me to make a series of ‘Votive Offerings’ there. The top photograph shows the whole series of posies I made, and left there.
‘Votive Offering No.65’ is one of these, it is a depiction of this posy of Flowering Currant, Hawthorne Blossom, Scots Pine and a blade of grass.
Working from this photograph I then created the painting at my studio,firstly working in graphite and watercolour onto stretched hot pressed watercolour paper. I then brought in acrylic paint for the gold of the grass and the opaque blue background, before working up further layers of watercolour glazes to create depth and detail. I particularly liked the way the twig of pine with it’s cone worked in graphite so I have left that unpainted. You can see in the images below how the artwork evolved to the finished piece.
This painting is on exhibition at Tolquhoun Gallery until 30th April alongside other Balmerino ‘Votive Offerings’. You can also see more of my Balmerino ‘Votive Offerings’ paintings here.