Hydrangeas three ways and three pages of a zine in progress...

Dear Sarah - Day 223 of our daily drawing exchange

August 11, 2025
Dear Nikki,

It's supposed to get up to 34 here today (will feel like 37, apparently) so I walked early (7:15), had a client call, made a pasta sauce with tomatoes and feta, and then sat down to draw and paint--you guessed it-- more flowers. Hydrangeas three ways.

One was made by filling a circle with squares (in pencil), turning them into small grids, drawing the petals (in ink) and then adding watercolour.

I quite liked the effect when I started the painting yesterday, but the leaves were no good. When I was out for my walk today I picked a hydrangea leaf and tried to apply what I saw to the painted leaves. Better, but still not great. I traced the leaf, too, for further reference. And then I did another couple of hydrangeas using only a very loose pencil outline and watercolours. The leaves are better, and I like the loose flowers.

And now I must work.

XO S

Hi Sarah -

I have to say I like all of these - for different reasons. I like to the looseness of the flowers and yes, like these leaves better than those with the rather cool lines-over-colour version. But I really like that effect - it’s… effective :)

It was hot here today, too - though not as bad as on the coast. I was busy (surprise!) but the work was confined to the valley - no city trip today.

This evening, took a quick bike ride after the sun slipped behind the mountain and the valley cooled off.

Did another page for the mini-zine: a question for which I don’t actually have a good answer. Do you count foot bridges? Wildlife underpasses? What about low-slung boardwalks that traverse watery places but aren’t exactly elevated? What is the definition of a bridge, anyway?

Here’s how it looks so far… Doing it a page a day is a little less daunting than tackling the whole project in one go. The smaller size of pages looks better than the overblown versions you see on the computer screen (assuming you read these daily (mis)adventures on a laptop).

We received our final schedule for the travel study program in Rome - very exciting, if a bit overwhelming. On the first evening together we are to attend:

Introductory seminar on Daisy Miller and AngloAmericans in Rome

I am very glad we will be well over our jet lag before we get to Rome because it’s going to be a PACKED schedule!! I’m not quite sure how I’m going to keep up with the daily posts!

A problem to solve next month…

Cheers,
Nikki