Narcissus Flowers

These narcissus are just opening up to the spring sunshine.

I had some fun with a new color for this painting. All the Bermuda paintings have inspired me to invest in a turquoise pigment when I stopped at the art store the other day. I found a Winsor & Newton (my favorite brand) turquoise that is permanent - actually they have several. If you paint with watercolors, you want to check the charts to make sure the colors you are choosing are permanent, which means they won't fade under ordinary conditions. Certain pigments are "renegade." They fade eventually to a brownish or yellowish color. I only use permanent pigments. After all that work, why use anything else? Permanent colors will last a very, very long time. Longer than any of us will be around.
When I went to check out my items, the clerk, who must be a watercolorist, looked at my turquoise and said, "This is a GREAT color. I love this one! It's fantastic for seascapes." To be sure, that's what I bought it for. However, I couldn't wait to do a seascape in order to use it. It's wonderful in the whites of flowers too...and in backgrounds...and leaves....

On another note, we've had a run of beautiful weather here, sunny in the 70's. Yesterday it seemed as if Spring had really SPRUNG! All at once, everything is in bloom: the magnolias, the forsythia, the azaleas, the daffodils, the tulips; the trees are loaded with red buds or yellow-green, the ornamental pear trees are white as snow. All the while, newly arrived song birds are sweetly singing throughout the day. What beauty. It's almost overwhelming. Ah, Spring!