Fuchsia by the Sunny Sea (640)

Fuchsia by the Sunny Sea (640),  oil on canvas, 24x24 in. (61x61 cm), for sale on Etsy.

While I was working on this painting, I browsed through images and descriptions about the south of France, especially the Côte d'Azur. I have visited Paris and I spent a month working on art in Brittany ten years ago, but I haven't made it to Côte d'Azur and Provence yet. I would really like to go eventually. The painting stems from that desire. The flat, bright blue of the background is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea. (More specifically, it is Sunny Sea Blue, color #640 in Naomi Kuno's Colorscape book. This is part of my larger goal of eventually doing something with all 658 colors in the book.)

I searched online for, but couldn't find, an image of fuchsia flowers growing somewhere in the Côte d'Azur. I learned that there was a craze for growing fuchsia in France during the Victorian era, but I couldn't find direct images to use for sources. I pieced things together from some more generic images of fuchsia flowers and my imagination. As I went along, the piece became increasingly abstract. A cluster of pink flowering trees bloomed along the peaceful seashore. In the end, I hoped to have an image that suggested flowers without being overly specific, just something peaceful and colorful.