The curse of the Frangipani

So it turns out that Karma does come and bite you in the bum when you least expect it.... though probably when you actually deserve it.... you see I have cast many many aspersions upon the poor humble frangipani... when I was young I loved them... it meant the beautiful sweet smell of summer holidays every bit as much as the smell of chlorine, and coppertone suntan lotion... I loved walking trough the sea of flowers on the way home from the train station... but then I got older and all that changed....
Frangipani went viral... everywhere I looked there they were... on every second canvas in every decorator store, to being all over photo frames, tacky necklaces and all those horrible horrible cushions.... what is the story with decorators and cushions????.... they are all obsessed... so my beautiful summer bloom was ruined... it had been relegated to cliche... a sad sad time in my life....


Of course things then got a touch worse because they became the symbol of bogans driving SUV's... for non Australians.... change bogans to redneck... I think... don't quote me on that.... but basically every second bleach blond bimbo with any cash at all had an SUV with frangipani stickers on the back window... and I have mercilessly flogged the fact that they are a tacky symbol of tastelessness, and it is a running joke, especially after Sinus Man bought me a brand new SUV two Christmases ago... he has been threatening to put those wretched stickers on my back window when I least expect it ever since... my nerves haven't been the same since I got the car I tell you... yes I am getting to the point... be patient...

So the thing is I was stopped at the top of our street waiting for traffic and the window was down and all of a sudden I was overcome by the heady gorgeous fragrance of the frangipani at the top of the street.... it was glorious, and then later the same morning I was sitting in the studio and looked out the window and was drawn to the deep magic pinks and oranges of some blooms... change glasses, and you guessed it... frangipani... so I thought it was time to make my peace with them and I would attack a painting... that enough time had passed and I could maybe have a shot at rendering their wonderfullness... turns out I was wrong... the drawing went just fine but the painting has been a disaster... so much so I can't even put post it... my biggest bone fide painting disaster in many moons... 


so I abandoned it and painted in my clivia, which I have posted at the top of this... to restore my faith in my own ability... and to an extent it did.... but it isn't summer, clivia don't sing about humid days and long lazy afternoons to me... even in those bright colours... so I tried to get my tropical back on with this painting of a coconut water that I had bought for Phantom to have with her lunch... purely bought it for the packaging.... and it has restored a little seasonal cheer... I am off to apologise to every frangipani tree I see over the next few weeks in order to try to restore my Karma so I can paint the suckers... and to soothe my battered creative soul I am heading over to Paint Party Friday to see what everyone has been has been up to...