Pink Clematis

It is the time of year to be really excited by the things that are growing in the garden and the beautiful verges and hedgerows we see around us. I am always eager to paint and there seems almost too much choice. The buttercups were my first effort. (See previous post) and this week a new Clematis has flowered very close to the house, so it is impossible to ignore it.

I have painted flowers of this colour and shape endlessly in the past but I am still drawn to doing even more. I just love those beautiful colours!!

Starting as usual with the wash on Fabriano Artistico Rough paper, using Opera Pink, Quinachridone Magenta, Quinachridone Purple and Ultramarine Violet, (And maybe a couple of others) I laid down the basic background shapes.

I then carefully drew out the shapes of the flowers. Not careful about being an accurate copy of what I had in front of me, but careful in their placement on the paper so that the finished painting would 'read' properly. ie petals joining the centre of the flower as they should and providing for background gaps between the petals etc.

I hope you can see the pencil lines, but as usual I have keep them as light as possible so that they can either be mostly erased or covered.
I then set about painting the flowers, buds and background using the same combination of colours with Apatite Green Genuine and some yellows. I also added white acrylic gouache to the highlights to hopefully give then a bit of umph. The final piece was adding the flower centres and giving the whole thing a good pink and white splatter to try to loosen the overall effect.

I used a bit of Moonglow mixed with Quinachridone Magenta for the shadows, but they still seem a bit heavy for the delicacy of the flowers. I must do some colour swatch exercises to find the best way of dealing with shadow areas. Hope you enjoy looking