Red Hat Ladies and Garden Pot

Last night I had the privilege of drawing in a beautiful english "secret garden".  Beautiful as the story told, with trellises hidden beneath green draperies splashed thickly with fragrant white roses.   Above the soothing bubbling of a water pond drifted the cheerful chatter of Red Hat ladies. Their Purples and Reds graced the garden like another species of delicate flora.  

My client is a memorable elderly character, fun to draw, exhuberant, whose bursts of laughter carried the party, whose kind patronage has moved her from my "client" list to my "friend" list. (Which makes it hard to charge her!)  One on one her stories are peppered with cursing - a surprise coming from a petite red-head who has enjoyed a singular stature in the community.  It was her hands that had tended this stunning garden, and I was amused and startled to see peeking above the purple ribbons of a red bonnet a distinctive five leaved plant looking suspiciously like an illegal drug thriving in a bin of rich black soil.  My mind ...surely not here... in the open for all these proper matrons of the red hat society to see! My client has led a colorful life, with discretion I had thought and later after the ladies were safely away, her response to my query was classic, perhaps a joke? perhaps not? I'm still not sure.  "Why Kyle", she exclaimed, THAT is Cleome,  I keep the other in the greenhouse of course! 

I didn't pursue the matter further...except to post my new found information here...

I love my job. 

Cleome