MID-SUMMER. Blue Hydrangeas abound in our area at this time of year. Lazy summer days abound, too, with temperatures over 100 F. and super high humidity.

Forced to linger indoors with books and paints. A lovely combination. Music in the background. A tall glass of ice tea on my watercolor tray.

My neighbor keeps me supplied with bouquets of hydrangeas. Used them for the first day Art Camp. Yesterday I cut a cobalt blue mop-head one from my own yard and used it for a Nature Study. With a full day of solitude on my schedule, I dipped into every tube of blue and yellow paint I could find.

These two paintings are the happy result. Then I found this quote in my Italian “blank book” which has been designated my Art Quotations Notebook: “There is no blue without yellow and without orange.” Vincent van Gogh, post-impressionist Dutch painter, 1853-90. I added that quote to the painting on the left. For the one on the right, I inserted some lines in Italiano pertaining to gardening tips for L’Ortensia (=hydrangeas).