Bougainvilleas

It has been awhile since my last post.  I have been busy the past weeks taking advantage of the last days of the summer.  Very hot days with temperatures reaching as high as 36 degrees Celsius (96.8 F) in the shade.  Despite the heat, many trees and plants are in bloom.  Bougainvilleas are aplenty.  They seem to thrive in the heat.

Fuschia Bougainvillea

KS00081, 8 x 8 inches, watercolor on paper

Common colors of bougainvilleas are white, red, pink, fuschia, lilac, and orange.  The colored parts of the plant are not actually big petals but are specially adapted leaves.  People often mistake these colorful leaves to be the flower.  Not exactly, but close.  The bougainvillea flower can be found at the end of the colored stalk that protrudes from the colored leaf.   Yes, the very small white bloom.   

While the bougainvillea plant looks very chaotic and busy, there is actually an order to things.  People sometimes tell me I'm crazy to want to paint bougainvilleas.  They require so much detailing.  But you know, once you see the logic of its construction, it becomes do-able.  And it does not require as much detailing as you think.  Will do a step-by-step project of it one of these days.

This fuschia bougainvillea is from our backyard.  I hope the orange and the very dark fuschia bougainvilleas my father got for me take root.  We are well into the rainy season now.  I'm seeing more green leaves than colored ones last I checked.  Maybe that is their way of coping with rainy weather.

This painting has been sold.  

Affordable prints of it may be had at FineArtAmerica

To see more of my completed works:

Original Watercolors  

Original Cloisonne Paintings

Back to painting now.  Thank you for visiting.