A Fall Floral Treat

Amazingly, autumn has already arrived with yesterday the official first day of fall!  The summer garden is now in its final phases and I am clearing out debris of a successful vegetable harvest.  However, with so many edibles planted this year, I miss the flowers that would usually fill our garden in the fall.  I've found that although vegetables feed the body, flowers nourish the soul.  So, you can imagine how happy I was to find Kelley Flower Farm offering a four-week floral subscription.  I promptly signed up for the program, and last Friday these stunning blooms were delivered to our door!

Since I will be painting these flowers for a new collection of artworks, I styled two different arrangements with them and took a myriad of photos for future art reference.  The first, in a rustic jug vase, is pictured below.  To create the design I mixed the bouquet with hydrangea and foliage clippings from the garden for added texture.

These beautiful burgundy dahlias add depth to the arrangement with their dark rich color.

The apricot zinnias stretch from their stems adding a sense of movement to the design.

Finally, the sunflowers are clearly the stars of the show, with their large blooms and soft unusual color.

In the second arrangement I changed to a more formal vase to complement our current table setting with pumpkin plates and soft amber glassware.

I also used this arrangement to paint, which is one of my favorite ways to record the beauty of flowers.



I look forward to sharing my progress on this new collection of paintings from the beautiful flowers that arrive over the next few weeks!  The paintings and prints of them will be available for purchase in my shop when the collection is complete.

Happy Fall!