Hippeastrums at Glandore Gallery

I have a small but expanding collection of  hippeastrums and they grace the biggest windowsill in the Gallery from March until June (sometimes even longer), greeting visitors with a colourful and spectacular display as they enter. Steve has always said he’d like to paint them but never got round to it …. until this year.

A couple of weeks ago, we had thick fog on Wednesday and Thursday so he decided to make a start on a large square painting featuring a selection of the hippeastrum blooms. He very rarely works in the Gallery itself but this is the sort of painting where he breaks his own rule of always working out of doors.

This work is a combination of watercolour, pastel and watercolour pencil to get the details and you’ll notice a ‘shine’ effect to some of the petals which he achieves by using gum arabic as an addition to the watercolour itself.

Hippeastrums – 25th May 2012
A large mixed media painting by Stephen Morris, Glandore Gallery, Isles of Scilly, UK.

‘Appleblossom’ hippeastrum (detail) 25th May 2012
Detail of the central bloom in Stephen’s large mixed media painting of hippeastrums, Glandore Gallery, Isles of Scilly UK.

The large pale bloom in the centre of the painting is ‘Appleblossom’ which is a lovely hippeastrum with a delicious lily scent. The very dark red bloom top right and bottom is ‘Benfica’ and the red and white star bloom is unnamed but still spectacular in its anonimity.

Also on the easel at the moment are several other paintings including a couple of loosely-worked beach paintings, one showing Newford Island, just off Porthloo Beach, at high tide when the sandbar is covered by the sea and the island is truly surrounded by water. Influenced by his recent work with acrylic inks, which are worked much more quickly and encourage a more impressionist approach, he is trying the same technique with watercolours and it is proving very successful.

Glandore Gallery – on the easel – 25th May 2012

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