Recent Efforts

Despite all the extra work and trying to keep the housework and garden under control I did manage to keep up with the Avon Valley group's programme and I produced a painting each week to fit the programme subject. I have not yet managed to get back to more serious painting, but I do enjoy the diversity of the programme even though it frequently takes me outside my comfort zone!

25th April   'Transport'

2nd May   'Texture in Nature'

9th May   'Tables and Chairs'

16th May   'In the Garden'

23rd May   'Coastal Scene'

Next week is the last formal part of the programme before we break for the summer so that those who wish to, weather permitting, can get outdoors to paint. The subject is 'Wreck or Ruin' Heaven knows what I am going to paint!!

Variety of Approaches 3 :Delphiniums

Here is my final selection of approaches, this time Delphiniums. I have tried endlessly to grow these in my garden, both in the soil and in pots but they continue to elude me. I am however totally fascinated by their majestic form and their beautiful colours. I hope you enjoy looking. By next week I will have finished my stint at the University and hopefully I will be back to painting as normal. Can't wait!!

Watercolour on Paper

Watercolour over crumpled tissue paper

Textured background using salt.

Collage on a painted ground

Plenty of white gouache

The most recent attempt.

Sorry, no titles and no detail of paper paint etc as they have been painted over some time and I never keep a record of that sort of thing unless they have appeared previously on this site.

Variety of Approaches 2 : Hellebores

As promised, the second of my gallery of flower paintings. These flowers never cease to amaze me as they withstand the winter weather and the paintings are so popular at the exhibitions. I am afraid I cannot label the varieties as I simply do not have the labels any more fore those that are in the garden, and I am not sure where I sourced the images for those that I do not grow! What is interesting is that they are all pink, although Hellebores come in other interesting colours.

Variety of Approaches: Roses

During my 4 week stint at the local university as an invigilator, I know that I will have very little time to paint, but I want to keep the blog active during this time. I have decided that it might be interesting to put together a collection of paintings of the same subject, so that it highlights the different approaches that I have used when tackling the same subject, and I hope that it will serve to fill the gap and that you will enjoy looking.  This first one is all about my better 'Rose' paintings and for the following two posts I have chosen 'Hellebores' and 'Delphiniums'

'Windrush'

'Rushing Stream'

'Molineux'

'Rosa Salvation'

'Spring Roses'

'White Roses'

'Apricot Roses'

Grape Hyacinths

As I am about to begin 4 weeks of nearly full time work of invigilation at the local university, I thought I would quickly finish the grape hyacinths that I had originally intended to paint at Thursday group before I was seduced by the red tulips.

I decided to do a slightly smaller painting, to be finished within an hour or so in the evening, so I drew out the desired size on the paper, and then added the initial wash.

I left plenty of white in the middle so that some of the flowers would have a bit of brightness. but I wanted there to be hints of other flowers in the background.

I then painted in the initial wash for the flowers, trying to get the shape about right and some of the lighter tones.

                                        

I also began to add a few leaves to the painting. I then spent time darkening some parts of the flowers, added lots more colour to the bottom background and created lots of new leaves by scraping back with a palette knife. A good bit of green, gold and white spatter and that is where I left it. A small quick little study which I enjoyed doing in such a limited time

Muscari....Grape Hyacinths

Fabriano Artistico Extra White 300g Not

30cm x 20cm

As a bit of an aside and nothing to do with painting flowers, the subject at AVA this week was transport. Not really enjoying the prospect of painting or attempting to paint a realistic view of some form of transport, I opted for something a bit different, based very loosely on a photo in one of the local papers. I am not sure it really works, but I do like the muted colours ( except the blue and yellow in the botton RH corner!) if nothing else!

'Wheels'

Red Tulips

No need to worry about being in my comfort zone this week at art group as the subject was 'Spring Flowers'
I originally planned to do a small painting of some Grape Hyacinths and did the wash and drawing, but was then too tempted by a large bunch of red tulips which found their way into my trolley at the local supermarket!. I will get around to finishing the Muscari   so will share it with you later. The tulips were quite tightly closed but as it was only Tuesday, I put them in the semi dark for a day to prevent them opening fully before AVA on the Thursday. A bit of a mistake really, as they were still quite closed when I started the drawing on Wednesday afternoon. I had to manipulate some of the heads to get them to look more open.

The leaves of the tulips look a bit bedraggled as this photo was taken after the event and the poor tulips had been in and out of water and my art bag all day. Somehow, the outer leaves got considerably abused!

I started with a drawing this time rather than the background wash. I thought about the best way to start for quite a while, as I have tried red/green background washes before , and where they meet, the resultant colour can be quite ugly. I decided, therefore, that if I did the drawing first I could put a red/orange wash over the specific flower heads area, and then paint in the background later. I knew that painting a red tulip over green wash would not work well, but it is quite possible to paint a green background over a red wash.

I started painting the image from the centre outwards, hoping to put the greatest detail into the flowers and leaves in the middle and loosen slightly towards the edges. I also spent some time testing the various reds and oranges in my palette, as I wanted to use the least number of pigments to keep the colours fresh. In the end I chose Quinachridone Coral and Transluscent orange which I sometimes mixed in the palette and sometimes on the paper. Where I wanted darker values, I just used a more intense mix of the same colours.

When I had painted the central flowers, I concentrated on painting the leaves. I knew there would be quite a lot of work needed in this area, as lots of overlapping leaves bending and flowing through the painting would require some quite subtle variations in shade and tone to produce the 3D effect. I also wanted to create as far as possible the idea that these tulips had been pushed tightly into the vase,creating a very tight bunch. I used lots of Green Apatite Genuine and Sap Green with some yellow, blue or gold added when required.I veined the leaves with either darker paint or the reverse end of a paint brush dragged through the damp paint.

I then completed all the tulip heads, keeping the three on the right as loose as I could.

To address the background I decided against using green and created a wash of Quinachridone Rust and Indian Yellow which I applied in various strengths across the painting, with the darkest values on the LH side. I also used this mixture with a little Indigo to paint the pot.

Finally, I used a hogs hair brush which I have trimmed to half its length , and clean water to gently wash out the highlights on the leaves and flower petals. I also added some darks at the base of some of the leaves to increase the 'squashed together' look.

I think the final painting is as much about the quality of the leaves as about the flowers. Tulip leaves are so sinuous and the coil around the flowers stems and twist and turn in lovely ways. It was very satisfying to spend time trying to do them justice. I am really pleased with the painting and it looks lovely in its white frame. I think, for me, this is about as good as it gets!

'Red Tulips'

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico Extra White

Rough 300g

45cm x 35cm

Roof tops

Back again to the Thursday Group exercises. In his comment about the 'Clematis' Peter' who is a fellow member of this group, suggested that he enjoyed seeing me push the boundaries of my comfort zone. Last week's subject certainly did that. One of the problems is that even with my camera in my pocket, I rarely take photos of buildings. I am always too busy looking into peoples front gardens! Thus, any subject like this, I have to rely on alternative source material, and that is never a perfect answer.

Needs must, however, and I started with a lovely photo taken of the roof tops of Manchester.

I suppose that I was mainly attracted by the colours. I love the orange and blue combination  and thought that there were some interesting shapes. I did not stop to consider that with my limited experience of painting buildings, I should opt for something a lot less complex!!

Because of the complex nature of the subject and the necessity of getting the buildings upright and with the perspective reasonably accurate, I resorted to a very careful drawing. (this is never a problem when painting flowers!)

I omitted the buildings in the very top distance of the photo as I wanted to include a bit of sky, and left out some detail where I thought it would not help to keep the painting a bit loose...always my intention although it does not always work...and I omitted the finer details of the stone carvings and the brickwork.

As usual, I added a simple wash over lots of the paper, but am sorry not to have a photo of this as I totally forgot to use the camera which I had, this time, remembered to put in my bag. 

I used Transluscent Gold and Cobalt Blue for the wash, painting it loosely where these colours appeared most strongly in the source photo. I also consciously washed in vertical areas to emphasis the height of the buildings.

It was then just a case of mixing earth colours...Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Quinachridone Rust etc to paint the various parts of the buildings. Where I needed a bit more detail, I used a non-permanent Sepia fine liner, which I immediately washed over with clean water to blur the edges. This also had the added bonus of creating those 'dirty' areas on stonework where it has weathered, as the sepia mixed with the blue gives a lovely greenish tinge. I used a similar technique with the window areas and the blue edges of the roofs.

When the painting was finished, I again used the fine liner to lightly pick out small areas of the brick and stone work, again washing over it whilst still damp to soften the edges as much as possible, but still leaving a hint of the detail.

As a final touch I darkened slightly some of the shadow areas and it seemed finished.

Not as loose as I had hoped, but still a lovely combination of colours and I am quite pleased with the result.

As usual, it was painted on Fabriano Artistico Extra White, 300g Rough and the final painting measures approx.30cm x 40cm.