Magnolias | Fighting Mother Nature to Paint Heavenly-Scented Blooms

Floral PaintingPainting InspirationBotanical Painting

Jul 8

*Heavenly | 12x12 inch oil on birchwood | © 2024 Christine Mercer-Vernon*

Spring in Pennsylvania is a wild ride of mild days interspersed with drastic temperature dives and freezes. For spring flowers that sprout from bulbs this is usually tolerated without any issues, but for magnolia trees, below freezing temperatures can turn delicate blooms brown and mushy.

Each year I eagerly wait for those bright white, pink brushed blossoms to appear. I go into each season with the intention to create at least one magnolia painting, only to have a deep freeze hit and steal all that beauty away from me.

This year, as the weather was taking a turn, my magnolia tree was full of buds on the verge of opening. So I went out into the quickly dropping temps and cut a handful of branches to paint.

My goodness the studio smelled amazing!

I tried everything to make the magnolia flowers last as long as possible, but once they are brought indoors, they bloom very fast. Creating floral paintings from life requires a bit of ingenuity. Since magnolias don’t grow on upright stems like flowers from the garden, I had to get creative to stage them for painting. The buds open quickly, so those were painted first. Once open, they constantly move and shift their petals but I was able to capture the gorgeous gesture of this open blossom before it changed too much.

The stems were painted a few days later, and finally, the insects were added after this oil painting had time to completely dry.

Some of my set ups get pretty creative to pose my subjects exactly how I want them.
© 2024 Christine Mercer-Vernon

All of the magnolia buds on my tree were damaged in the 20 degree temperatures that hit that first night. When I checked on them the next day they were already turning brown. While they didn’t fall from the tree, they never opened.

Sadly, the weather finds away to steal these gorgeous blooms from me every spring. It’s a good lesson in being present and enjoying them for the brief time they are here.

Next year, I’ll be sure to cut more branches and test out ways to prolong them just a bit longer so I can paint a larger botanical painting.