MRS. TROWBRIDGE'S RED HIBISCUS PAINTING

Every opportunity that came Mrs. Trowbridge's way was a golden opportunity. She spent many hours at the Huckleberry Hollow library studying about her ancestry. She was fascinated with her ancestors that had lived, oh, so far away in the Mongolian Steppes. And their migration across the South Seas to South America. 

So she seized the opportunity and began a series of paintings of the flowers that occur in the South Pacific islands where her ancestors had lived. I saw many red hibiscus such as the one that Mrs. Trowbridge painted above on my last trek to the South Pacific islands. 

Stay tuned for more of Mrs. Trowbridge's lovely floral paintings in future posts on this blog. 

Have you seen my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy?

PLUMERA FLOWER, by VIOLET TROWBRIDGE

This is the second in a series of lovely paintings by Mrs. Trowbridge in honor of her ancestors in the Polynesian islands. This is a frangipani, or plumera flower. It is a common species in Polynesia. I have encountered this beautiful tropical flower on my trips to the South Pacific for my research in tracking the migration path of the Trowbridge shrew from Mongolia, across Polynesia to South America, to their current home in the Northwest United States.

Have you seen my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy?

TROWBRIDGE SHREW ANCESTRY

Mrs. Trowbridge was very intrigued by her ancestors. I, too, have become interested in Mrs.T's ancestral roots, which have been traced back many centuries to the Mongolian Steppes in Northern Asia.

It is thought that the Trowbridge shrew migrated over many centuries of time from Mongolia through the Polynesian islands to South America, then northward to Mrs. T's home in the Olympic wilderness of North America. By the process of carbon dating some pages from Mrs. Trowbridge's journal, we learned that she lived in the Quinault Rain Forest a little more than 200 years ago, about the time that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was taking place.

Inspired by her Polynesian ancestors, and the beautiful flowers that flourished in the South Sea islands, she set out to paint a series of florals depicting flowers that grow in the Polynesian islands. The flower above that she painted so deftly is a tree hibiscus.

The flower on top was hand-scribed, then the flower was rendered in charcoal. Mrs. T made her own charcoal sticks. Click here if you would like to learn how she made her charcoal sticks from Douglas fir needles.

The next post on this blog will be another of Mrs. Trowbridge's lovely flower paintings.

Have you seen my other blog, Bron Smith's Flights of Fantasy?