'Leaving'

This weeks subject at Avon Valley Artists Group was 'Leaving'
What a title for a flower painter, but never one to be defeated I gave it some thought and decided to try to combine the flowers with something that could be loosely connected to the title.I thought I might try to paint a Humming bird leaving a clump of blossom after having had its fill of nectar.

The blossom was no problem, although it proved to be the most disappointing part of the painting when it was finished! The source material for the Humming Bird, I acquired from the internet, and decided to use the shape but not necessarily the colours.

Before going to AVA, I worked out the vague composition and painted the background in the usual way, using mainly transparent orange, pthalo blue and pthalo green with a mixture of paynes grey and moonglow for the shadows on the LH side.

The wash already gave me some flower shapes in the bottom LH corner, so I did a light simple drawing of some flower shapes , together with leaves to represent the shrub that the bird had been visiting, and I placed the humming bird in the top RH third of the painting. Ideally, the bird would have been approaching the flowers to keep the eye from leaving the image, but I had to stick with the subject, so it had to be flying away from the flowers.. It didn't really matter, as Thursday Club is all about experimenting, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Whilst painting the picture, I tried to remember that all objects are only shapes and can nearly always be treated in the same way. Bearing in mind my recent preoccupation with lost and found edges, I tried to use similar techniques when painting the bird as I would have used for flower petals. The bird was the first thing I painted as I wanted that part of the picture finished before the end of the club session.

I then tackled the flowers, which I thought were going fairly well, until it became evident that I had not yet learnt when to stop, and I think they have been seriously overworked. Never mind, I am really pleased with the bird and there will be plenty of opportunity to paint more flowers in the future. I might even have more goes at exotic birds.

As an aside, Peter Ward ( www.watercolourfanatic.blogspot.com ) painted a fantastic eagle about to take flight, which is well worth a look.In my opinion, the best he has painted for ages. Well done Peter! Several other members painted some really good stuff too, which Peter might post on his site, so doubly worth a look.