New flower arrangement

I have a great longing to take it to pieces and start again
using a large block of Oasis in a flat dish, with the Tulips
emphasising the foreground.
Those Dahlias need colour individuality, a foliage space round each flower with the vase as a background interest. I will shut up before I upset someone ! Sorry Linda.

They are lovely. This is art. Please do me a favor, take a look at the twenty most expensive paintings in the world and then imagine yourself taking any one of them to an art instructor as an origional which you had painted....what do you think the critique would be? I will tell you. The instructor would most likely take a big house painting brush loaded with gesso, wipe the image on the canvas out and tell you to start over again.

I like it very much, love the colours too!!

I love tulips but if I arrange them carefully, they still seem to do their own thing when my back is turned!!!

Love the colours you have used. Arranging flowers is something I really like to do even if they are in the smallest of pots or jars.

Linda I just love arranging flowers too..yours look fab!

I am a painter Diane so I look at it as a colour composition. The Tulips were designed to cascade on the left balanced by the Lotus seed pods on the right. I needed hight in the vase for this. The flower heads are too small to be cut individually but the crimson matched the Tulips with the greens flowing across the arrangement. The colour of the vase matches the Lotus seed pod and the dark of the Tulips. I liked the solidity of the flowers. I think it is a clever colour combination and the forms link together well....that is the artist speaking. :0)

I like the colours too, but wondered whether the tulips will stay at that angle? If I tried to do that they would all have turned in the night to grow vertically again. If you can prevent them doing that please tell how you do it?

I wondered what the honey comb like structures were --lotus seed pods? Never seen those before, interesting.

I have trouble with Tulips behaving too Stera and Wildrose......they won't move because they aren't real! The leaves are placed to cover the stems. :0)

So, that's the answer!!

Thanks Barbara and Sandra. We do a different shaped arrangement each week, I just do as I am told. We all bring different flowers so they don't look the same. The Lotus seed pods are a lovely shape to use Siris.

See what you mean Loosestrife. Love the Rubens and the Renoir. As a student I was quite passionate about the modern ones. Most of these have been sold recently so have high prices. Other wonderful paintings will never be sold on the open market......than goodness. All a matter of taste!

I read in your profile that you are a portrait painter. One of my favorite portrait painters is a Thomas Eakins an American realist portrait painter and I was fortunate to acquire a work by George Catlin who's work focused on painting portraits of Native Americans.

WOW! I wrote the above comment and when I added it it came up with Iciar's avatar. If it happens again it will add this....Best Regards: Loosestrife:)

Linda looks fab to me ,but that's from another gardener painter

Another point of view. My husband Barry, is a painter sculptor and I asked him this morning why this arrangement is his favourite so far. He said it was the solid void relationship, the voids created by the flowers and the vase and the dark voids between the flowers that relate to the colour of the vase. He liked the texture of the vase which was repeated in the Lotus seed pods, the repeat of the Tulip form in the form of the vase and the colour of the flowers appearing in the highlight on the vase. Also the whole arrangement appears to be considered from all view points. He said," I could go on.........!" Well I did ask! :0/
Will look up your portrait painters later Iciar. I have to get back to work in the studio.

I love the colour combination I was told to push a pin through the thick base of the tulip flower to allow air out which helps them to flower much longer ,
Loosestrife2 its odd that the Iciar icon should come up on your message as it often accompanies Meanies Messages he doesn't understand why its happening either ...

I was told you push the pin in just under the flower head Amy. :o) Some people wrap them in cling film for five hours. Remember to cut the ends and make sure they don't dry out. Remove older leaves and buy the flowers young. The flower head should be below the leaf when you buy them. They are best on their own as daffodils don't like much water in the vase....you have to top it up for them.
Maybe enjoy them in a taller supporting vase Amy.

I always understood you have to put an old penny in the
bottom of the vase. The copper makes the Tulips stay upright in a vase.
Good for Barry. I liked his thinking.

Loosestrife I so agree with you. Five of them are great art as I understood it, though I wouldn't want to live with any of them. To pay anything at all for the first one is mind blowing...Maybe people just have different sorts of mind and can appreciate stuff others can't understand.

Thanks for that Linda I've probably been sticking the pin through in the wrong place ,Yikes !

Your painter Thomas Eakins reminds me of my favourite painter John Singer Sargent. I also love Henry Raeburn and Lucian Freud. When I am painting a portrait I often refer to them. How they have tackled a problem that I am trying to solve. You are also very lucky to have a George Catlin painting Iciar.
I think I will try the penny in the vase Diane, I have never had much success with the pin thing. Perhaps you could try the penny too Amy. :0)

Actually I'm Loosestrife. Somehoe the Iciar avatar came up instead of my 4 frog conga line avatar.

Love your arrangement Linda and the colours used.

It's very pretty Linda. The vase is nice too :)
I like those little green button flowers ...

Linda that's delightful, love it on all counts, although I don't paint I come from a very artistic family, and can appreciate your skill.....

Thanks 3d, Hywel and Dotty for your lovely comments. Loosestrife.........sorry if some of your mail goes astray, you know it is for you. Maybe you should sign off with your name just in case.

Gorgeous, Linda. Very artistic. Love it.

Linda thank you for that list of painters. I looked them all up - brilliant.

A very nice arrangement Linda and the Lotus seed pods compliment the vase beautifully. I have to say, I love the Kermit chrysanths but the individual stems never seem to be long enough to split them up. Clever idea with the tulips. There's nothing worse than getting up next day to find they've all turned up again to face North. Zantedeschias do the same.

Thank you Klahanie and Stera for your comments.....glad the list of painters interested you Stera. You are right Thorneyside about the chrysanthemum, they were just too short to split. I cut as many as I could. Our class runs through the winter and it is just the same limited flowers available in the shops. That is why we add silk flowers to them. You can usually hide them with fresh flowers and greenery. We have a fantastic wholesales in Glasgow for silk flowers. Country Baskets.

Won't get into artists names and painting I just love what I see and your arrangement is simply beautiful I do agree a vase can really make all the difference to any kind of flowers .

I have no skill at flower arranging but had two friends (now both sadly died) who were brilliant at it but had completely different ideas about it. They both agreed to do the flowers for my youngest daughters wedding and it was hilarious watching them trying to work together without arguing! Needless to say the end result was fantastic. I like your arrangement, Linda, lovely colours and it all blends and sits together comfortably. Well done :)

Thanks Kidsgran......I seem to have a lot of vases these days but you are right it makes such a difference. My sister and I did the flowers from a friends wedding but our teacher is so much better than us Gee. A pro has had years of experience. I am very sensitive to colour tho' and she asks me for my opinion on it now and again. We all have our own strengths.