Gorgeous Hydrangeas

I came across a wonderful display of gorgeous hydrangeas and, as usual, I got carried away taking photographs to work on. This blog looks at the photo paintings (photo art) I created from those photos.

Gorgeous Hydrangeas

What are Hydrangeas?

The name ‘Hydrangea’ covers about 75 species, the majority from Asia. Hydrangea is also known as Hortensia and they grow to different sizes. Whilst many are shrubs that grow between 1-3 metres in height, some are small trees and some grow as climbers. Most of the cultivated species are deciduous, with pretty colors in fall.

Hydrangeas are popular as ornamental plants, grown for their large, showy, flower heads (mopheads). They come in a variety of colors. According to the Secret Life of Flowers, the hydrangea symbolizes heart-felt emotions. In Victorian times negative meanings of the hydrangea were said to be ‘cold and heartless’ or ‘boastfulness and vanity’. A more positive meaning was ‘thank you for understanding’. Flower Meaning suggests that contemporary Japanese florists use the hydrangea, particularly the pink hydrangea, to represent love, linked to romance, weddings and marriage.

I used a white hydrangea for this wedding commission ‘On Your Wedding Day’ (available as a print without the message), but, as you will see below, I am partial to a pink hydrangea myself.

Working with Gorgeous Hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are great subjects for a photo shoot as they just sit there in their glory and let you do all the hard work. I knew I wanted to create a series of hydrangea images but also had a collage in mind. So there needed to be some similarity in the shots I took. This approach allows me to both group images and play round the edges. In the end I worked with five gorgeous hydrangea images for the series I created. The first three images (available separately as prints) are shown here in ‘Gorgeous Hydrangeas Collage 2’.

Experimental Collage

I also enjoyed creating an experimental collage of the hydrangea images I created. I wanted to display them with more geometric form than the soft flowers would normally lend themselves. Creating ‘Gorgeous Hydrangeas Collage 1’ involved a fair amount of work. I had to create three images specifically for use in the collage (ie not otherwise available). The three images have framing of one sort or another. Two of the frames reflect the colors of the hydrangeas in the images and one is a statement black offset image.  I had fun with this collage and I like the way it has turned out.

Something a Bit Different

The final images I created also involved presenting the hydrangeas in a different way.  One is another version of an offset image (you can see it in my video below). But my favorite of the images I created is this ‘Hydrangeas Montage‘. Soft but with lots of interesting lines – bit like me really!

I hope you have enjoyed my little tour of hydrangea images. You can buy fine art prints of my hydrangea and other floral images from RedBubble (worldwide shipping) and Pictorem (free shipping in North America).

Overview of Gorgeous Hydrangeas in Video Form

I leave you with an overview of all these new gorgeous hydrangea images.

Before you go

My name is Dorothy Berry-Lound an artist and writer. You can find out more about my art and writing at https://dorothyberryloundart.com.

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Thank you for reading!