I found ways of rendering white in paintings of these poppies and swans. Painting scenes with white in them means looking for reflected colour… sky, lake, grass.

These Trumpeter Swans flying by in the late autumn afternoon appear more blue than white. The sun is behind them, so their bodies are mostly in shadow, except for a glint of white at the top.

Trumpeter Swans are beautiful, native birds (the link show how to identify them and Tundra Swans, which are also native, whereas the Mute Swan with its orange beak was introduced and now breeds here in some places).

I heard these ones first trumpeting their arrival. They flew by, then around me in a wide arc. I’ve seen them a few years at our local marsh, but they never stay to breed and raise their cygnets there.

These large white poppies with deep purple centres grew in my garden for some time. Only the large red ones come up now.

I decided to try rendering white in paintings of these poppies to remember them by.