Hydrangea Bleu, 5.5" x 7.5"
Did Marie-Antoinette have the tiniest clue what an influence she would have on future generations? Their chocolate-drinking habits or their floral choices?
Or how many bloggers lives she would save?
Are these hydrangea/hortensia in this poster for the Paris exhibit?
Hydrangea seem to be everywhere like here at the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday.
Both of my parents had passionate green thumbs. My fingers were red-yellow-blue from finger painting, but the flower bug hit me late.
Parisien fleuristes did it to me.
Though I've learned to grow zip, I certainly have learned to look down and appreciate other's efforts.
And the tiniest exquisite shops are everywhere.
If only I'd thought to take a picture of the name of this shop. You'll remind me next trip in October S.V.P.! My mother liked to paint flowers as well as grow them. At least in that respect I take after her :)
PS I will not be a GardenFair this weekend- too many other obligations were calling and now it's raining non-stop.
BON WEEK-END!
Your watercolor reminds me of DD's and is beautiful, Carol!! I think hydrangeas are one of my very favorites--I was so happy ours bloomed this year--last year, we had a spring freeze and never one bloom, so we were so disappointed. This year we actually went out one night and covered ours on a cold night--and they bloomed beautifully. Gorgeous little painting, Carol! Do you have your mom's paintings? I hope so...Was she a watercolorist or did she use oils?
ReplyDeleteMy Mother painted mostly in oils-rather formal setups and I never liked them much at the time.
ReplyDeleteMy sister has them now.
I did hold onto her old watercolor box.
I wish I knew what I'd done with it...
Thank you, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI save PB til last each day to slow down and e-n-j-o-y.
Thank you.
I am glad you alerted us to the fact that you would not be at Winterthur - when I heard the weather report of rain for 3 days straight, and knowing how horrible it is to walk those grounds in thick mud (we've done it many years in a row for an upscale juried crafts show)
ReplyDeleteI was mainly going to see some of your truly inspiring watercolors. The garden paraphernalia would have been a nice diversion, but my main reason for going was for your ethereal watercolors!
Have a wonderful weekend, and stay dry!
Patricia
Love hydrangeas, love the colors here :)
ReplyDeleteLovely post today. Our hydrangeas did well this year. Not everything did do well because of such a cold Spring, but they did.
ReplyDeleteLovely post. Any chance of seeing one of your Mothers paintings here?
Talent seems to run in your family I see.
I love these flowers.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers in the bouquet on the poster do look hydrangeas, don't they? But this portrait of Marie-Antoinette dates from 1778, and hydrangeas only became familiar in France when Josephine, Napoleon's first Empress, had them planted in her gardens of Malmaison, some 30 years later.
ReplyDeleteSo I would identify the flowers in the poster bouquet as lilac, a plant Marie-Antoinette loved. The silk hangings in her Versailles bedchamber are embroidered with lilac branches.
I was wondering about the flowers in the poster...
ReplyDeleteThough did you know that M-A & Josephine were gardening buddies?
Josie intoduced M-A to roses in a big way. I have it from an expert rosasarian
loved todays flowers and l grew those and sold them in my flower shop but have you ever dried them as you get such a surprise with the different colors they change to. Just hang them in a garage or anywhere thats cool and dry and use soft yarn and hang them high. When l did them l also dried some nice foilage branches by by using two jugs of warm water and three cups of glycerine from the chemist and they dry in three weeks and end up with supple shiny leaves to bring inside for fall arrangments,
ReplyDeleteJill
Hydrangeas always remind me of Oregon. I don't recall ever seeing them in France. But, it makes sense that they would have them.
ReplyDeleteThat arrangement at the Met is breathtakingly beautiful. There is something so fragile about each individual petal and yet when all together they pack a powerful petal punch.
Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI have one hydrangea in my Norway garden, a light blue one, and it is blooming beautifully now.
I love Hydrangea. Those sidewalk florists would have me stopping every two steps. How on earth do you make it anywhere with such treasures to look at along the way? I would have to set out very early just to arrive on time.
ReplyDeleteHope you and yellow duckie have fun in some puddles with all that rain.
carol, hydrangeas are my favorite flowers... one day i dream of a garden full of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Carol. Oh what glorious hydrangeas! I've passed along an award to you. Stop by The Tea Room when you get a chance to pick it up.
ReplyDelete~Arleen
http://thetearoom.typepad.com/the_tea_room/
Oooh...I love hydrangeas - those big powder-puff blooms. Especially the blue-tinged ones.
ReplyDeletehave a glorious weekend too!
a] too bad about Winterthur, but it's going to be a big ole' washout from what I can see.
ReplyDeleteb] you should see the Hortensia in Bretagne in July - - amazing, like no where over on this side of the pond! Such huge plants and so many colors. I didn't care one way or the other about them before I saw them there, but now they always give me fond memories of Brittany.
Something for you to investigate on your next trip to Paris:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theparisblog.com/2008/09/24/from-macarons-to-martinis/
im living in paris now!! I LOVE IT
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Carol!
ReplyDeleteI saw "vintage" hydrangeas just yesterday, they were fabulous, I thought they were fake. The color was incredible, have you seen them?
I LOVE hydrangeas... and I have passed my "hydrangean" genes to my daughter.
ReplyDeleteWe have planty of pink and red hydrangeas in our garden... they've bloomed all summer...and we're very proud of them ...
Thank you for this post !!!
MN
Can't resist saying I, too, liked your hydrangia in today's post,
ReplyDeletebut not the composition.
A bit too "one-two-one-two," with the glasses.
Methinks.
wmt
I had no idea Marie Antionette and Josephine were garden buds!!! A serious lapse inn my garden education - thanks for illuminiating!
ReplyDeleteThe Met has the most wonderful florist!
my "old girl" paints in oil and pastels....
ReplyDeleteI have a number of her works. She even did air brush "hot rod" art...
Anyhoo- I love the florist shops in Paris, so intimate and cool, and the splashes of colour! Makes me smile thinking about it whilst in my office "down under"
thanks carol!
I had never heard that Marie-Antoinette and Josephine were gardening buddies either!
ReplyDeleteI would very much like to know the source of the expert rosarian's information, since Josephine, though a noblewoman, was not of a rank that would have given her access to the Queen before the Revolution.
What is undisputed is the extent of Josephine's influence on flower cultivation (roses in particular) in France and Europe, but that was a decade after Marie-Antoinette's death.
Truly a glorious flower and one of my personal favorites!!! Beautiful photography!! Ahhh the Met! makes me miss living in Manhattan!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE hydrangeas - dry or fresh any colour.
ReplyDelete