Heliconia Heaven

 

Sexy Pink #1

I’ve been back in Jamaica for over a month, and only now is the dust settling…Hit the ground running, organizing and then teaching three all-morning classes, of which 3 very good weeks had passed, before coming down with the Chikungunya virus. It’s at epidemic level here in the capital, so now I’ve had it I’m immune and can continue with normal life by next week. It’ll be back to being really busy! The house was so quiet as I lay still, trying not to move as that virus makes you so pained-up! I got to read and sleep, and when I finally emerged the garden beckoned…

Before my retreat, the students were all working on learning how to see, and then draw and paint, negative shapes, and what better than the zany heliconias and bromeliads of our tropical clime as subjects? The most lovely drawings and studies were emerging, and so I had to have a crack at it myself. This one is watercolor and white gouache.

I still am amazed that such wild plants exist: living in Jamaica feels like Dr. Seuss’s Land of Sola-Selew…