Ode to a Fuchsia

I used to go around to my grans house as a kid and sit under her fuchsia bush. I would pick the flowers form it and pull the bottom of it off and suck the nectart out of it. Its was always warm and sweet like honey. I would do this every summer, sometimes I would pick them off the bush and place them around my ears and pretend they were earings and always felt like I was the most glamours child when I did this. Because of these blessed memories I decided to paint 2 paintings of my grans fuchsia bush.

Painting these two nearly sent me over the edge. I was in agony after each day and took to bed. However the challenge of trying to get the shade of red or the translucent shine was such achievement when you got it. Painting these came at the perfect timing. I had come off oxycontin after two years of being on it, the pain is unbearable at times since I am off it but paintings the flower images was an act of mindfulness and distracted me from the pain as I was so focused on turning out a perfect image.