Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums

I paint during the week, but my Saturdays are reserved for the garden. I grow a lot of the plants that I use in my still life paintings. Nasturtiums are a typical example – easy to grow and they are in flower for much of the year. Even in the dead of winter it’s nearly always possible to pick a small vase of flowers from these hardy plants. Sometimes a painting has a gnawing sense of lacking something or being not quite finished. Often a few of these flowers will fill that needy vacuum and give the satisfying result of a well rounded painting. The flowers can also be scattered into an almost – finished painting to give it a lift.

Nasturtiums as triffids

In early summer the nasturtium plant sends out long, sinuous runners. These are a fascinating painting subject in themselves and the runners can be draped across a table or spill out of a tall vase. These long tendrils were a favourite of artists of the Art Nouveau era. The long, curved stems of the nasturtiums lend a triffid-like presence to still life paintings.

Nasturtiums in motion

Another quirky characteristic of nasturtiums is that the leaves and flowers turn towards the light. The round leaves are like little radar dishes, seeking out and locking on to the spotlight. When the plant is carefully arranged ready for painting and the spotlight is switched on, the greenery starts slowly moving and turning! The complicated weave of tendrils is difficult enough to paint without that! To stop this I have a switch at the easel and only put the spotlight on briefly. After a careful look at the flowers and the shadows that they cast, I switch off and go back to do more-detailed work on the painting.

 

Next Exhibition

My next exhibition of paintings will be held at the Metcalfe Gallery, Brisbane Institute of Art, Windsor. Open from 27th August to the 8th September, 2021,10am – 4pm. Please send me a note and I’ll email you a reminder two weeks before the start.

Christine