Painting Tulips on a rainy day in the Garden, May 2022
Despite a dull, wet day for last week’s Tuesday group for older people, it was a morning full of joy and creativity, thanks to artist Corinne Beaty who devised and led a wonderful watercolour ‘master-class’, inspired by the last of this year’s beautiful Tulips in the Garden. Corinne describes the workshop:
“Tulips have some very peculiar names like “Amazing Parrot” or ‘Flaming Purissima’ and I had this in the back of my mind when I was planning last week’s watercolour ‘master class’. I was getting so sentimental about the Curve Garden tulips ‘going soon’ so I wanted to work with the group to record the last of their blooms, before they disappeared for another year.
I’ve been working on the ‘Little Museum of Spring’ with Laura Halliwell, so I wanted each member of the group to draw and watercolour a cut tulip specimen, found in the garden that morning, in the style of a botanical illustration, before naming “their” tulip with something associated with their “identity”. The completed artworks will be added to the ever-changing display in the Little Museum.
The result of their watercolour images is wonderful and the names they chose for their tulips often give a hint as to the member of our group who painted them. We had “Mountain Flower” (in Greek), ‘Sly Mongoose’ ‘Upbeat in St Vincent’, ‘Yellow Fellow’, ‘Friendly Raymond’ ‘Party, Party, Party’ and ‘Frilly Knickers’!
Many thanks to Corinne for her brilliant workshop, to volunteers Rachel West and Miriam Sedacca for their help and to photographer Erola Arcalis for her beautiful record of the morning. And of course thanks to all the workshop participants for their beautiful artworks.