Peonies

This will probably be my last big painting before turning the studio into the guest bedroom. It is called peonies, but I am not sure that the image is botanically correct or if peonies exist in this lovely colour, but I don't really think it matters. I just had the urge to use this lovely Quinachridone Coral which has been tempting me for ages. I took the shapes from a variety of gardening books of which I have many!

The process was quite simple.....a decent drawing, painting the flowers and then adding a background wash and over painting the leaves.

Sorry about the photo. I am not sure why the drawing is so faint. I took the photo in the usual way but can only assume that the poor light we have had recently is to blame. I also have no idea why the second image has acquired a blue background. It is definitely white!

The flowers were painted using only the Quinachridone Coral in various strengths and a little Indian Yellow to add vartiety.

I used Moonglow with a little of the coral for the dark centres. It made a lovely colour, but even at this stage I was a little worried about the centre of the LH flower. I then removed the pencil lines from the flowers, leaving only those that defined the outer edges. These will be removed after the background wash has dried.

I added a wash to the background using Apatite Green Genuine mixed with the coral and a little Indian yellow. These colours were just dropped onto wet paper and allowed to blend naturally.

I over painted the wash with more Apatite and Hookers greens to produce the leaf shapes, and finished off the markings in the centre of the flowers. Finally I darkened a bit of the background in the centre of the painting.

'Coral Beauties'

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White Not

45 cm x 30 cm

I did wash away a bit of the colour in the LH flower centre, which I think helps, and I am particularly pleased with the way some of the leaves have picked up the background colours.