Shades of Purple

Purple Clematis

Rich deep purple flowers woven through the trellising, their large flowers opened wide to the sun. The climbing clematis is a beautiful addition to a garden wall or fence, bringing with it beautiful blooms of color.

The wild Clematis species native to China made their way into Japanese gardens by the 17th century. Japanese garden selections were the first exotic clematises to reach European gardens, in the 18th century, long before the Chinese species were identified in their native habitat at the end of the 19th century.

After it arrived in Europe, it acquired several meanings during the Victorian era, famous for its nuanced flower symbolism. It came to symbolize both mental beauty and art as well as poverty

Text Source wikipedia.

I set up my paints next to this clematis, using watercolors to capture the variety of purple hues running through its soft petals. Using the watercolours I built up layers of colour, applying some wet on wet and others on to dried paint.

'Shades of Purple' 2017

The painting looks quite at home here, maybe that's where it will stay!