It's obvious if you look through this gallery that I love saturated colour.  Though many plants strut their stuff, competition for insect and animal clients dictates that they need to practise good timing.  Luckily for us artists, pathetically grateful for this moveable feast, every week in nature new shows open, others hit their stride, and some close, striking their sets but already planning for next season.   

I take a multitude of photos throughout the growing season, hoarding my digitals as a squirrel stockpiles walnuts for the winter, knowing what we will both need to survive.  I may adore blue shadows on snow but winter often brings overcast skies and a palette of attenuated earth tones.  I begin to long for primaries, if only suggested.  This is what I found in my stockpile.

In this first painting of 2020 you can tell that I am edging back into a Technicolour world.  The reference photo was taken in our front garden the prior June and was slightly tweaked over the winter to locate the underlying shadows.  At first I thought that the whole peony would be soft pastels and there are probably five or six transparent glazes on the petals.  Gradually, however, the deep golden heart with its juicy mix of "infinite stamens" and "5 to 7 pistils" demanded to make its voice heard.  Three more glazes of Pebeo's Stil de Grain
served to spotlight the focal point in all of its warm generosity.

By the way, if you have a spot of sun, plant a peony root.  It will faithfully return each spring, even after you are gone.  Not a bad legacy.