Wednesday 14 April 2010

My Favourite Flower


This is my favourite flower. Today as the sun shone the beautiful chequered flowers started to open and really show their colours and patterns. It is the Snakehead Fritillary.
Each Autumn I plant some more of the tiny white bulbs in my garden. I always feel excited as I wait each April to see them flower.
I think it is such a lovely shaped flower, so delicate, elegant and beautifully patterned. The tall slim stems with thin leaves which create elegant shapes too. I watch them as they grow and try to capture their beauty as I draw them. There is a black and white ink drawing in my side bar. This one is drawn using pencil. It is a life size drawing as the real specimen shows.
Watch this space as I expect there will be many more drawings of my favourite flower. I have planted hundreds and this is just one of the first to flower.
Hope you like it. You can press picture for close up, and then press anywhere on the image for a zoom up of image.

14 comments:

Cornflower said...

I love the almost chequered pattern on the flower. Both specimen and drawing are beautiful.

Ann said...

Beautiful drawing! I have never heard of these flowers, they are so elegant, and you captured that elegance perfectly.

sea-blue-sky & abstracts said...

A lovely drawing of a beautiful flower. It grows in the wild too, doesn't it? But not here in Cornwall (well not in the West) something to do with the soil being too acid I think? Bye for now, Lesley

Pondside said...

That flower is completely unknown to me - I'll have to get myself to the garden centre, or at the very least to the library to see some photos.

Jill said...

Aren't these the most unnatural flower, and yet they are so delicate and dainty? Love your drawing.

Carolina said...

Hi Milly,
I had never seen these flowers, they are really wonderful. I had seen your drawing on the sidebar, and now the 'story' is complete.
The drawings are great, and make justice to the life models :)
Warm regards,
Carolina

Acornmoon said...

Your drawing is lovely as always, such an old fashioned flower, I love them. They do well in our garden and seem to thrive on neglect, we have sandy soil.

JANE MINTER said...

beautiful study ..... i've only ever seen one of these flowers milly there are incredibly striking and fascinating

ELFI said...

vos dessins sont d'après nature et aussi personnels.. j'ai plaisir de regarder!

wandering said...

They are just beautiful, aren't they, fritillaries. And so is your drawing.
There is something of a dragonfly wing, in the pattern of the flowerhead. I like those repetitions in nature...

Ruthie Redden said...

I do love these flowers too and their checkerboard pattern, though sadly i have never been able to grown them! beautiful drawings.

Renee Howell said...

You have a wonderful blog. Your drawings are a delight to see. And so sorry about the stolen dragonfly episode. I'll check back in on your drawings!

Lucille said...

Yes a beautiful yet modest flower. Its leaves and stem lie flat on the ground at first and then raise up.I'm always terrified of standing on them. Such a good drawing.

letustalk said...

Eyes that observe and a mind filled with wonder at the beauty spread out by nature , is what I see here. Lovely drawings:-)