Love & Wildflowers From Tennessee

 

Cypripedium acaule

Mixed Media on Strathmore Watercolor Postcard

Will be for sale in a series as originals and prints

Last April, I had the opportunity to participate in Chuck Sutherland's "Epic Photography Weekend" where he invites photographers from near and far to come and be guided to the most amazing places in the Upper Cumberland area of Tennessee to take waterfall, sunset, wildflower and other nature photographs.  They are hard core and on day one I slogged a mile up a creek with them, climbed a waterfall, and got some very nice photos.  It was a fantastic experience to meet with other photographers and share ideas and experiences, and make a few new ones.  Here's one of my photos from the weekend.

Mertensia virginica

Eastern Bluebell

You can see more of my photography at Great & Small Photography on Facebook

One of the highlights of EPW was spending an afternoon with Don Hunter, a naturalist and photographer from Georgia.  We meandered along a back road in caravan along a place Chuck knew in Jackson County, TN, where there were wildflowers in abundance (in April).  I learned a lot about flowers, and also about photographing them.

When I decided to do friends' Facebook photos for 30 Paintings in 30 Days, Don was the second person (after Chuck) that I thought of.  So I'm excited to finally paint one of his wildflower photos.  The hardest part was choosing one to paint, so I thought I'd do an entire series of Southeastern US Wildflower Postcards painted from his photos, a few of my own, and maybe (hopefully, since I want to do more of this) from life.  

I'm beginning to get a rhythm in the various media I'm using... watercolor for the background, Inktense pencils for any texture in the foreground, Inktense blocks for smooth foreground areas, and highlights in  white Sakura Gelly Roll pen.  Throw in some pen and ink first if that's the style I'm using, and I expect to be using it more since I want to do Inktober in October and I just bought a fancy series of Copic technical multiliner pens for the purpose.  

This is painting #6/30.  I'll be playing catch-up next week, since this weekend will be a little nutty.