The Garden of Europe

So far I’m having a great spring rediscovering my home country of the Netherlands. This month my family and I visited the Keukenhof, a 32 hectares spring garden located in Lisse, Zuid-Holland. Keukenhof, also known as the Garden of Europe, is one of the world’s largest flower gardens. According to the official website of Keukenhof there are more than 7 million bulbs in bloom this spring, with a total of 800 varieties of tulips.

Since my visit to the gardens has given me lots of inspiration. I couldn’t wait to paint. Enjoy the world of blooms as seen through my camera, and enjoy my pen & ink visualisations!

Mommy, look at this funny tulip!Pepijn

While my daughter was taking lots and lots of photos with an old camera of mine, my son was following his big sister, and my husband was enjoying his day off and navigating us through the gardens, I was suddenly deeply moved by the view of my son exploring a tulip. He was intrigued by this tulip with jagged petal edges, and he reached out his hand very slowly to touch this “funny” tulip. I just had to take a photo and paint this moment!

It’s wonderful to see what a big impression this tulip has made on my son—he spent the rest of the day looking for more tulips with jagged petal edges.

Curious to experience more about the Netherlands? More will follow soon—stay tuned!

Sources

• http://keukenhof.nl (Keukenhof is open from March 23, 2017 – May 21, 2017)
  
• Photos and paintings by Simone Li