Nelumbonaceae Family | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Georgia O’Keeffe Visions of Hawai’i at the New York Botanical Garden

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 20, 2018 | Malvaceae Family, Nelumbonaceae Family

Last week I had a chance to see an art exhibit I’ve been waiting to see for almost a year. Each year, the New York Botanical Garden has an art exhibition that includes an artist’s work and displays in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory related to the work. This year’s exhibit is Georgia O’Keeffe Vision of Hawai’i. It is a spectacular exhibit.

In 1939, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company commissioned O’Keeffe to produce images for them to use in advertising campaigns. O’Keeffe spent nine weeks exploring, photographing and painting. Once the works were completed, they were exhibited in New York in 1940. The Hawaiian Pineapple Company used two of the paintings in their promotional campaigns.

Seventeen of O’Keeffe’s Hawaiian paintings are currently on display in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Art Gallery. The paintings include both floral and landscape paintings.

My favorite painting in the exhibit is Hibiscus with Plumaria (on loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, DC). O’Keeffe brings the flowers to life in ways that I only wish I could do in my photographs.

Hibiscus with Plumeria by Georgia O’Keeffe

During her stay in Hawaii, O’Keeffe visited the Iao Valley on Maui. The landscapes she saw inspired her to paint a series of three paintings of waterfalls. My favorite is Waterfall No. III, Iao Valley, Maui (on loan from the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawaii). As I looked at the painting of the waterfall, I felt like I was looking at a painting of a calla lily surrounded by green leaves.

Waterfall No. III, Iao Valley, Maui by Georgia O’Keeffe

In addition to the paintings in the Art Gallery, the horticultural staff at the garden has created displays in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory featuring tropical flowers of Hawaii. Three of my favorite flowers on display were this wonderful yellow orange hibiscus, the pink-purple bougainvillea and the lotus blossoms.

The Georgia O’Keeffe Visions of Hawai’i exhibit is on display at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx until October 28, 2018. I highly recommended visiting the gardens and seeing the exhibition if you can. The Conservatory displays make it easy to see where O’Keeffe got her inspiration for many of her paintings.

Georgia O’Keeffe is one of my favorite artists. I love the way she shows details in flowers. I’d love to know who your favorite artist is and why you like their work?

Blooming in July

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 25, 2016 | Asteraceae Family, Flowers, Nelumbonaceae Family

Here in the DC area mid-July usually means hot humid days. This year is no different than other years – our temperatures are rising into the 90s most days – and it’s very humid. So some of the flowers at local gardens aren’t coping well with the heat. Fortunately there are some flowers that seem to thrive in the summer heat. So I thought I’d share some photos of these summer blooming flowers with you this week.

First up are some lotus blossoms and leaves at Kenilworth Gardens.

Sunflowers at McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area

And some Red Coneflowers at Brookside Gardens

I’ll be sharing some of my photos from Green Spring Gardens on Wednesday

New Photo: White Lotus

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jun 15, 2015 | Flowers, Nelumbonaceae Family, New Photos

I’ve recently added a new photo – White Lotus – to my BeautifulFlowerPictures.com website.

I love seeing the lotus blossoms in the summer. At Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens here in the DC area, there are more than 20 ponds of lotus blossoms that bloom each summer. All of them are the wonderful pink lotuses that most of us are familiar with. So you can imagine how happy I was to see this amazing white lotus blooming at a botanical garden. In some ways it seems even more spectacular than the pink ones since the soft white petals curl around the yellow center in ways that the pink ones don’t. I loved photographing this one – and when I viewed it from above – I knew that that was the image I wanted to capture and be able to share with all of you.

White Lotus is available as a matted print on my website.

Lotus Blossoms 2013 – Part 2

by hankinslawrenceimages | Aug 12, 2013 | Flowers, Nelumbonaceae Family

Here are a few more of my photos of the amazing lotus blossoms (nelumbo nucifera) that I’ve taken this year. All these photos were taken at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens.

I hope you enjoy seeing the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them and sharing them with you 🙂

Lotus Blossoms 2013 – Part 1

by hankinslawrenceimages | Aug 1, 2013 | Flowers, Nelumbonaceae Family

Every summer I spend a few days photographing lotus blossoms (Nelumbo nucifera). They are incredibly beautiful aquatic flowers that also are considered divine symbols by several Asian religions.

Usually the only place I photograph the lotus blossoms are at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC. So far – I’ve been to Kenilworth Gardens twice this summer – and have gotten some wonderful photos. I also photographed a stunning white lotus blossom at the Atlanta Botanical Garden last month.

Here are the first set of lotus photos for this summer – I’ll be posting more in a few weeks. I hope you enjoy them.

Lotus Blossoms

by hankinslawrenceimages | Jul 3, 2013 | Flowers, Nelumbonaceae Family

It’s July! Which means the lotus blossoms will soon be blooming at Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC. The lotuses bloom through most of July and August at Kenilworth -and are one of the best flower sites to see in the DC area.

I head into Kenilworth Gardens several times each summer. This year – I’m planning on going with the DC Flower Safari on Saturday July 13 and it’s likely to be one of the places we photograph during my Capturing Nature’s Peaceful Beauty workshop on July 19-21. Plus I’m sure I’ll head in a few more times – just to enjoy the beauty of the lotus blossoms.

To give you an idea of how wonderful it is to see the lotus blossoms at Kenilworth Gardens – here are a few of the photos I took there last summer.

Over the years, I have created some wonderful photographs of Lotus Blossoms at Kenilworth Gardens. Several of them are available as gallery-wrapped canvases through the Lotus Gallery on my website.

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