Agapanthus or Lily of the Nile are native to South Africa. Sometimes this flower is also called African Lily (mostly in the UK), although they are not lilies and all of the species are native to Southern Africa.
I choose to paint the most commonly known Lily of the Nile which can be grown in North America as well. This is painting number 3 of 50 in my 50 Watercolor Flowers series.
I used my one-stroke painting method for the flowers and littlle flower stems on this painting. You could use the 3-step painting method for these flowers but it would take much longer to paint. I did use the 3-step painting method for the main stem and leaves.
I loved painting the flowers of the Lily of the Nile. The trick is to use different temperatures of purple and blue to create depth and dimension. I used mixes of French ultramarine, quinacrdone rose, and colbalt blue, for the flowers. For the leaves I used mixes of sap green, olive green and paynes grey.
Below is an image I used for inspiration for the painting.
Check out my 50 Watercolor Flowers Painting Project post to see a list of the 50 flowers I will be painting and posting about for this project. As I complete each painting I make a blog post about it and link it in this main post.
Check out my video on how I paint the leaves of this Agapanthus below. These leaves are perfect for beginners!