Friday, August 30, 2013

Erigeron

These little flowers are smaller than daisies. Like daisies they have a yellowish hub and white petals but these flowers have many more petals - probably 50 or more per flower. The bees were working adjacent plants but not this daisy like flower. They were identified from the painting by my friend, expert naturalist Fred Karstad.

The most widely used common name, fleabane derived from the belief that the dried plants repelled fleas. The name Erigeron is derived from the Greek (eri = early; geron = old man), a reference to the appearance of the white hairs of the fruit soon after flowering - just like me...

I had to finish this painting in the studio with my mahl stick. My hand was not steady enough to block in the darker background after painting the foreground flowers and foliage. It was also getting quite warm after the stratus lifted.

Life continues to be very good. What will I paint today?

2 comments:

The Art of Phil Chadwick said...

By the way... To the untrained botanist, Flowers a simple weeds with good public relations. They can all be beautiful.

Aleta Karstad said...

This is a lovely painting, Phil - both bold and delicate... and very fresh!