A few years ago, I bought a small cyclamen plant with beautiful fuchsia-pink blossoms. Of course I painted it. After that I nursed the little plant through summer and the next winter it was flowering again.

This time I made a pencil drawing. Looking at it with all the veins and everything in pencil lines, I wanted to keep it a bit that way. Maybe make it a bit clearer. Black and white is great for that and it is a bit of a break from colour. Relaxing. I transferred the drawing to water colour paper and went about with brush and black ink. Now the veins of the leaves come out very well.

The whole picture reminds me a bit of Art Nouveau – the black and white drawings around 1900, like Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898). He did a lot of really naughty and funny illustrations like e.g. a fart. Unfortunately, he died from tuberculosis at a very young age. He certainly had a great sense of humour. I own a complete book with his artworks. Very entertaining.

Back to the plant. It seemed dead this last and third winter. No leaves, no flowers. In the end I threw it out into the rain and cold in February. And it started growing and blossoming again. I couldn’t believe it. I planted it in a shady place then and maybe it comes back next winter. It is a great red spot out there at that time of the year.

Here is the painting I did with my first cyclamen plant:  

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