Les Fleurs Decorative Painting

The seaside beacon

I don't know exactly what it is about lighthouses that I like them so much. They seem to have the ability to trigger memories of distant places of long ago. It may be just the evoking images of beautiful seaside settings on the background, or perhaps the abstract concept of a shining beacon - the guiding light the early seafarers depended upon long before the days of modern navigational equipment. Whatever it may be, I like the whole idea of a lighthouse, complete with its beaming and revolving light that illuminates the night sky, the sturdy tower that can withstand the rough forces of nature, the station and keeper's quarters, and the beautiful and strategic seaside locations where they are normally found. I must have seen a number of them long ago when I was very young. I'm not sure how many of them are still around today, which gives the idea that lighthouses belong to the time of distant past. I have painted a number of lighthouse pieces like this one here and it has always been kind of sad to let them go to their rightful owners. But there is no doubt that I will paint more of them.

Tutti Fruity

Painting fruits can be so much fun - thanks to the bright and delicious colours provided by nature.  But painting them can also be quite a challenge due to the wide range of colours, tints and shades of the different types of fruits. You can have all the major colours - red, yellow, green and blue - if you have the right collection of fruits all in one place. Although we can easily get colourful tropical fruits here, the popular fruits to paint tend to be those that come from the cold and temperate climates, such as apples, berries and grapes of different kinds and origins. Whenever I have to paint them, I get to learn about the different varieties of fruits from different parts of the world. For instance, apples are not just apples - there are big and small apples, and there are red, green, royal gala, granny smith, washington, richmond, china fuji apples, etc. as well as european, american, australian, chinese, japanese apples, etc. And the same goes for berries, grapes and other fruits. It is the nitty gritty details of the artistic aspects that contribute to the beauty and uniqueness of handpainted items.