During the early months of Covid I didn’t go anywhere; I was listless and uninspired.
We have the Sea Wall nearby but it was always packed with people. After seeing a video showing how much plague could be spread by bicyclists and joggers I was scared to go out.
One day I saw a neighbour cross the Sea Wall with his toddler and disappear along a secret path into the bushes. The next day I tried the same escape route and came through the plantings into a small park with huge trees. It would have been idyllic except that the park had been taken over by a couple of hundred Canada Geese and their goslings.
The Canada Geese were very aware of social distancing – if anyone came with two metres of their goslings they would hiss and start to attack. I can also say that the park was very well fertilized – no wonder the trees were huge!
Then I saw the flag irises and their reflections in the duck pond. As a photo it was sort of messy because the geese had filled the pond with feathers and whatnot.
However the addition of water to a flower painting was very exciting for me. It opened up so many options. The other thing that struck me about the irises was the contrast of the light yellow irises against dark green pond and dark reflections against light sky reflection.
Maybe my problems with inspiration had more to do with not going out anywhere. Maybe I need to go out and catch impressions of things to be inspired?
At any rate it was the beginning of the returning of inspiration and who knows where that will lead? Who knows, maybe my next watercolour will have room for a duck!
Love the painting!