Pink and White Dahlia

 © Ellen Blonder

 © Ellen Blonder

© Ellen Blonder

The last few days, I've been working on this watercolor of a pink and white dahlia that I saw last year at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens at Fort Bragg, California. It was the height of the season for dahlias, so I took many photographs and hope to paint more.

Blasts from the Past - 2

These were under piles of other old artwork. I painted them on illustration board, using gouache and watercolor, and adding some final details with colored pencil. They illustrated an article on controlling pests in the garden in a 1983 issue of Home magazine.

Blasts from the Past - 1

 © Ellen Blonder

 © Ellen Blonder

Poor, neglected blog. I have been busy, though, spending over a month to finally dig through, purge and organize many years' worth of old art files. Sometimes you have to clear out what's behind you to see your way forward. 

One of the fun parts of all that was finding things I had forgotten I painted. These three spots were part of a presentation I made in 1994, for a line of stationery and other paper products. While I got the job, none of these spots were used.