Thursday 3 August 2023

Guess Where We Found Cornflowers...

Image is a digital line and wash watercolour illustration of bright blue cornflowers, surrounded by digital watercolour splashes.
"Happy Blue Cornflowers," by Clare Walker



Hello there, and hope all is well for you.

And yes, as you'll most likely have guessed, this post is all ,about how the cornflower illustration above came to be.


The inspiration

They were inspired by these  beauties...


Photo shows a bumble bee in the middle of a blue cornflower, surrounded by other (slightly weather-beaten) cornflowers.
Photo of Cornflowers and Bee by Jim Fernbank

(And though The Computer Man's photo is wonderful as always (thanks Jim!) even this doesn't really do justice to how bright these flowers were (despite having been a little beaten around by the rain)).

So naturally, I set about giving them all that extra vibrancy in art-and-digital-land. After all, one of the reasons I paint and design is to highlight all that is brightest, happiest and best in the world at large, and nature especially.

The really surprising thing...

The really surprising thing though, is where we found both the large and happy clump of cornflowers, and the selection of (equally happy sounding) bumble bees...

 Next to a bucolic cornfield? No.

By a quiet country lane? Great guess, but, no again.

These flowers were right next to our local covered reservoir, intertwined with the very sturdy metal bars that keep people from tampering with said reservoir...As you can see from this photo (thanks again, Jim)...


Photo shows a big clump of cornflowers intertwining with a netal fence, behind which are the bricks of a covered reservoir.
Photo by Jim Fernbank


Yes, people do usually go up there for a view of the London skyline. But so mesmerised and surprised  was I by the cornflowers instead, that I've generated more art as a result than I can talk about in one blog post.

So the second instalment will be next week (though there is a  downloadable background here, and even a card design if you want to see what became of the illustration at the top of this post right this minute...)


Which just goes to show...

Which goes to show that if you keep an open mind, it really is possible to find inspiration literally anywhere.

And on that note, will leave you to your day, but will be back next week to show you more.

Thanks so much for being here, and for reading down this far.

More soon.