Do you love purple flowers? I do, they are refreshing to see standing tall in Texas’ blazing summer heat. Well as luck has it, we have wild purple day lily’s that are more than abundant in our yard – they’ve taken over. Not that I’m complaining, they are gorgeous and fun to watch, opening in the early morning and then after a long day of trying to beat the heat, the little purple guys fall off – the next day the cycle starts all over again. So I thought why not ~
Wild Purple Day Lily’s (7×5) oil pastel is of an area in our yard where purple lily’s grow thick and wild hugging the wrought iron fence – so pretty (I’ve taken more photographs than I can count). The painting was done on an ampersand board, using an acrylic underpainting and several coats of clear gesso for additional tooth and primarily Senneliers and Holbeins OPs. For textures a painters knife and a razor blade were used.
A quick story about this particular spot in our yard – at the beginning of summer last year my husband was working in the yard, happy about the area he cleaned out. So I went to have a look, well don’t you know it he plowed all the day lily’s down thinking they were weeds! LOL, I mean to tell you ~ so what do you think happened, ha, they grew back thicker!
Enjoy my gecko friend who was on the fence while I was taking photographs, cute isn’t he? Have a great weekend ~ click onto the image for a larger view.
Gecko Watching Me Take Photographs
DON’T TAKE MY IMAGES!! MY ART IS COPYRIGHTED.
PLEASE DON’T COPY OR USE MY IMAGE WITHOUT RECEIVING MY PERMISSION FIRST – SEE DISCLOSURE ON THE RIGHT PANEL.
Oil Pastels by Mary 
Beautiful – colour and touch. And I too love geckos – when I was a child I had a water salamander. Unfortunately he was stolen. When I go abroad I like to “talk” to them – and I do believe they answer me. Like flowers and art – they have answers to questions unasked.
Ah thank you Ann-Christine – those gecko’s are so cute. Too bad about your salamander, I’m sure he was a precious pet as a child. While working outside today, several gecko’s and lizards were running around providing lots of entertainment.
i love the flowers AND the gecko!
Thank you my friend – gecko is familiar right?! Hope you are rested after your company!
I am a big fan of purple so of course I love this one!! Your flowers are delightful!!
You are awesome Christy! Thank you so much for your beautiful comment – have a great week ahead!
What a beautiful Spring Sunday visit I’ve had here today! Mary, your flowers are beyond beautiful!!!!
I’m smiling as I read your comment Resa, thank you so much! Means a lot.
Great depth, movement and layers. Seems like you’ve worked really hard on this and it’s paid off – you can almost see the wind whistle through the garden
Thanks Mark – you are so right, there was a lot of layers painted on then scraped off w/a razor and repeated until some definition and depth began to develop. The underpainting helped a lot in the painting to establish the background darks, that allowed me to paint the lighter OPs then over the darks w/o the fear of smearing. Appreciate yoru thoughts very much – thank you!
elegant – classical color and simple!!
Thank you very much Mihrank for your generous comments!
Such a delicately pretty painting, Mary 🙂 I think the handsome gecko might want a portrait too? 🙂 Happy Sunday!
Hi Jo, so funny! Mr. Gecko might just show up one day as a surprise painting (cute, isn’t he!). Thank you, glad you enjoyed the piece. Have a great week.
i agree, and i can already visualize the amazing job she’ll do with the gecko!
Ah Z you’d love that, wouldn’t you! I’ve never painted or drawn a gecko perhaps I’ll give it a try – stay tuned!
You’ll do that well and it will be fun!
Beautiful!! Yes, I like purple flowers.. and geckos :d Have a lovely Sunday, Mary!
Hi Calee, thanks so much – great to see you. Appreciate it and hope you have a wonderful week ahead.
I DO like purple flowers and these are no exception. Glad to hear that your husband’s little mistake worked to benefit the garden!
Thanks so much Elena! Glad you enjoyed these wild flowers – they spread like crazy, but the purple is so striking that I don’t care. Isn’t that funny about whacking down those “weeds!” Have a beautiful week ahead.
very beautiful! I like your choice of colours.
Thank you so much Dsaquarelles for your lovely feedback!
How beautifully breath-taking! 🙂
Thank you Eva! Glad you enjoyed the day lilies – have a wonderful week ahead.
Thank you! The same to you. 💜
Really gorgeous Mary… I love those purple flowers ⭐
Happy weekend!!!! Aquileana 😀
You’ve made my day Aquileana! I’m glad that you enjoyed my painting, purple flowers are some of my favorites. Have a wonderful week ahead ~
looks*
Thank you Maniparna!
The purple look so vibrant…great job… 🙂
Gorgeous! Glad these beauties survived! 🙂
Thanks Madhu! I’m with you, and late last Fall I pulled several big bunches out, right down to the roots to transplant – oh yes, it worked perfectly and I’m seeing signs of life. Thank you so much!
Purple day lilies would stay in my garden Mary 🙂 I had a vivid orange variety which had to go Lol
You’re going great guns with your paintings this week .. well done !
Oh my, I’ll bet the orange was gorgeous though – in the TX blazing heat they might blaze even more, making it a “hot bed”, lol! Last year I had a rather large yellow Lantana surrounded by deep rich looking purple flowers (new and can’t recall the name, sad I don’t see them returning this year and thought they were perennials when we planted them), anyways yellow and purple made for a spectacular showing the whole summer. Thank you for your encouragement and support – I’m starting to loosen up with the flowers and starting to enjoy the challenge series. Have a wonderful week!
The gecko is gorgeous. How amusing that the day lilies grew back thicker and stronger. Your husband won’t make that mistake again…..will he? 😉
Thanks Gallivanta – beautiful little creatures. So funny, you are so right – while my husband likes the flowers, he thinks they are too much of a good thing. They’ve taken over the perimeter of the house property on one side, and I have to given them a good thinning constantly throughout the summer – but I do love these gentle flowers. Have a great week ahead and I’ll be catching up with your blog, I saw you posted and looking forward to reading it. Glad to see you again.
Lovely composition, Mary. I’m fascinated by your beautiful greens. I find that really challenging to paint, you’ve done it so well here.
Hi Heidi, thank you so much for your beautiful comment and feedback. I’ve got a lot of indigo, magenta and turquoise blues – to offset some of the greens. Hope you have a lovely week ahead.
The purple day lily painting looks lovely. I like the touches of yellow you have in the painting as well. I’m sure it’s called something fancier than yellow. I could sure use wild day lilies in my yard. Lol. The gecko looks cute. Where I live on the West coast of Canada we have little lizards in the summer. Not as colorful.😊
Hi Joanna – thank you so much for your generous comments about the painting. I used a number of yellows and yellow-greens, glad you noticed them. So you like my gecko? They are very cute and comical, and we also have lizards – I’m kind of partial to them. Have a lovely week!
Your work, Miss Mary, is a delight
Big Hugs
uncle john
Thank you Uncle John!! Have a wonderful week ahead.
So pretty, Mary. That gecko looks like the one we have here.
Thanks Slyvia! He’s a cute little one, right? Best to you this week ~
One of my favourites, Mary !
As for the gecko … no words. I used to watch a BBC comedy-drama called “Murder in Paradise” about a bumbling English policeman seconded to the Caribbean; and it had a gecko that looked exactly like this (except that it had to be animated in !). I thought it was someone’s imagination !
😀
Hi M.R., thanks very much and glad you enjoyed the painting! Ha, funny story – don’t you love the little gecko guy – they are great fun to watch these creatures climb up and down trees, etc.
Love how you switching up the compositions from one flower to a group, from one color to another color keeping us on our toes to see what is next! These purple bunch is marvelous, love how you spread them out on your canvass and played with the sizes. The greens and blues give lovely depth and support the flowers by bringing them forward. Beautiful work today Mary!
Adorable little fellow, I have never seen one in person but they look cute!
Have a wonderful weekend! 🙂
Thanks Eva, I’m warming to the challenge and can see some interesting pieces coming down the pike. Our patches of day lilies are dense and thick with flowers all throughout – beautiful scenes in the summer time. I didn’t intend to paint this one, but happened to come across last year photographs of our gardens and thought why not – so glad you enjoyed the painting. Thank you for noticing the sizes, I’m learning – it helped in establishing depth in the scene. So you like my little guy! Yes the geckos are cute and actually pretty comical as they are always running all over the place and up and down trees/bushes/flowers and then scampering across the patio. Have a wonderful week ahead! Thank you always for your support and encouragement ~ stay tuned!
I love purple flowers. My son and daughter-in-law sent me some gorgeous purple iris.
Hi Michelle, thank you so much! Purple flowers are some of my favorites, especially the deeper the color. I’ll bet your Iris’ were gorgeous. Have a wonderful week ~
Oh, I do love purple flowers and yours are brilliant! Love your guardian gecko too!!! 🙂
Happy weekend, Mary! 🙂
Hi Marina – thank you for your beautiful comment! The gecko is cute right? They are so gentle, until they decide to catch a bee for dinner – then they are precise and ferocious with their razor sharp teeth. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead – take care,
I love purple flowers, in fact if it is purple, no matter what, I will love it. I love purple.
These make me think they are like hidden treasure just hiding under that green waiting to be discovered but they’re so bold they give themselves away! 🙂
Hi A! thanks every much – glad you enjoyed this little purple treasure. They make for a really nice showing in the gardens or supporting wall about 4′ tall.
Not only is your painting wonderful, Mary, but I like the story about the lillies coming back as well. 😀
Hi Jet, thank you! Oh yeah – they grew back and then some, ha!
Daylilies are marvelous! And I love your purple ones. As you might remember, most of the wild ones we see in Maine are orange. We planted a variety of colors one year, but the cultivated ones were not as tough and indomitable as those wild ones. Thank you for some more spring, Mary. Love that little guy on the fence!
Thank you Cynthia! I wish you could see the flowers in person, thick pockets of the lily’s – happy as could be during the day and by 5:00 they are spent and have fallen off the stems. The purples are really gorgeous, my little painting really doesn’t do them justice. I’ll bet the orange ones are beautiful – I don’t remember them when we were living there. So you like my gecko – we have 30+ more, they are kind of just out and about, and fun to watch. Usually we’ll find a baby or two (sometimes or more) that have gotten into the house – oh my, they are pinkish about 1 1/2″ or 2″ long and quick as all heck. But we’ve gotten pretty good with catching them and bringing them back outside. Our TX lizards are just waking up now, they are a little harder to see as they blend in with our Oak tree bark, but they are just as abundant. Have a great week ahead!
Lovely!
Thank you Simla!
Mary, the purple day lily’s are beautiful. Such vibrant colors, and my favorite color combo, purple and green! Great painting. Are you enjoying working with the painters knife?
Hi Janell, thanks so much. Love your feedback, don’t you just love purple and yellow. Last year I planted these vibrant purple flowers around a bright yellow Lantana, oh my it was spectacular to see. Sad to say the purple flowers didn’t survive the winter this year, I’m not seeing any movement with them. I do like to paint with a knife, one day I’m going to do an acrylic with a knife – it will be fun to try a full painting with very wet paint. Have a great weekend.
So soft and pretty…! I like how complete this is 🙂
Geckos just run around freely where you are? He is cute!
Love your comment Marick – thank you so much! Ah those gecko’s – I love them. Yes they pretty much have the run of the land around here, many 20+ that I can count, as well as Texas Lizards – between the two they off a lot of entertainment. Look at his long legs and feet, cool right? Have a lovely weekend.
I can tell by your delicious purple flowers painting that your garden is beautiful. I like the composition with the way you gave weight to the largest flower in the foreground allowing the others to fade into the background. The yellow greens and cool blues in the leaves give great depth to the piece. Wonderful work today Mary. Have a superb weekend! 😊
Thanks Rhonda and for noticing the placement of the flowers. Remembering previous comments I’ve received, the placement of the flowers as well as the back ones was done on purpose – thrilled that you noticed. I was fighting a little bit with the medium-dark background to show depth with the painting, next time the UP will be even darker in a piece like this. Thanks for noticing the colors – they were fun to develop. Thanks have a great weekend!
Oh yes, I love purple flowers, Mary. Your painting is beautiful, the flowers look real. Don’t you just love Geckos…they’re so curious.
Hi Jill – thanks very much. This was a fun scene to reproduce, really love purple flowers and was happy to be able to reproduce them to a certain extent. Love those gecko’s – they are always hanging around, like you said very curious and just cute! Thanks again!
Lovely work Mary! The purple is great!~Rita
Thanks Rita! I think I’m going to find some purple tulips and see what I can do with them – purple is such a great color for flowers. Have a great weekend!
You too Mary! ~Rita