loving ranunculus

I've always loved ranunculus. Maybe it's because they look a bit like roses with those petal-packed flowers. I've never grown them before this year when I succumbed to a package of bulbs without doing any research first. When I got home and was preparing to plan them, the things I read online were a bit discouraging. They're better suited to growing in other climates. I planted them anyway. And was rewarded with a beautiful (if a bit surprising) show.

These ranunculus look more like poppies or anemones (not so on the package).

And I was completely smitten.

With the colors. And the shapes and how different they all were.

Delicate, but bright.

Sometimes ruffled. Sometimes not.

Matthias, often less enthusiastic about flowers than I am, declared them his favorite. Neither of us could stop looking at these lovelies.

Although I cut some to bring inside, I didn't paint them, busy as I was with other things. And then I saw that the flower buds were dwindling and the blooms were dropping petals. I brought a few up to my studio. They were looking a little worse for wear. The painting did not start very well and I was ready to give up, but something that I've learned is that I need to keep going when a painting starts out like that. I need to push up against and past that resistance. I was soon feeling a lot better about where the painting was going.

It was a race against time and before the painting was finished the flowers looked like this:

I'm a bit smitten with how the painting turned out.

Which is a good reminder to keep going. If things seem not to be going well, just keep going. Never give up. Or, as Winston Churchill said, "Never, never, never give up." I may have to hang those words in my studio.