Fantasy Arums

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
- Marcel Proust

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


Arum Lilies - Acrylic on Gesso primed un-stretched canvas - 9" x 12" - Maree©

Definitely a first for me, doing a subject that is not true to life. I mean, really, Orange Arums?! What next?! Normally for me, as here, once I apply a back-ground, that normally sets the tone for the rest of the colour palette. And it seemed a natural progression of incorporating orange as the contrast to the yellow back-ground.

All species of Arums (or Zantedeschia) are endemic to southern Africa. Z. aethiopica grows naturally in marshy areas and is only deciduous when water becomes scarce. It grows continuously when watered and fed regularly and can survive periods of minor frosts.

The Zantedeschia species are poisonous due to the presence of calcium oxalate. All parts of the plant are toxic, and produce irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, acute vomiting and diarrhoea. A beautiful flower carrying a deadly secret!

Coffee Trees - Flow-ers of energy

From the Non-physical, you created you, and now from the physical, you continue to create, and we are nothing if we are not Flow-ers of Energy. We must have objects of attention, that are ringing our bells, in order to feel the fullness of who we are, flowing through us, for the continuation of All-That-Is. That is what puts the eternalness in eternity.
- Abraham-Hicks

A daily practice of sketching and painting gives you a chance to exercise the big three P's - practice, practice, practice!


"Trees - Flow-ers of Energy - Coffee on Bockingford 300gsm

Some more painting with coffee, this is totally exciting! The back-ground was stained with tea first (black and very strong!) you can see it peeping through in the three corners) continuing with coffee when the tea was totally dry. Unlike the coffee, the tea is staining, so doesn't lift easily and takes over-painting and layering like a dream.

This was done exclusively with no sketching beforehand - I just followed the flow of the colours and, trees, being one of my favourite subjects, always seem to appear before my eyes! I also added a bit of Cadmium Red for interest and some Intense Green for a couple of leaves. The dark parts are where the coffee dried to a rich, glossy sheen on the original, but doesn't show up on the scan.

Done on a thick Bockingford 300gsm watercolour paper - 12" x 8"