Contrasts

Whew! What a week of contrasts! Last Thursday at club it was a case of abstract art, and this week I have just finished a flower painting as traditional as you could get. It certainly makes for an interesting life.
Last weeks club subject was abstract music. I do enjoy thinking about this type of subject, but lots of the members find it incredibly difficult to disassociate themselves from figurative shapes. Hence most members finished the morning with either surreal paintings involving musical associations like bits of notes or instruments etc, or graphic patterns with similar motifs. My take on abstract art is that if you know what it represents, then its not abstract. Having such a passion for flowers, I chose the musical rhyme....'Lavenders Blue, Dilly Dilly, Lavender's Green' and I am delighted to say that everyone who was interested had to ask me what it was, and where was the musical link.
In point of fact, I was much better pleased with the result than I had hoped, and will certainly look forward to trying some other subjects as starting points. I put lots of emphasis on texture, and included the use of clingfilm,salt,splattering and blowing the paint around the picture as well as a bit of collage of circles cut with a hole punch. The paper was quite wet at certain points so I was glad to have used a good quality paper,and I included watercolour paint, acrylic inks and watercolour pencils to produce the colour.

                                              300gm Fabriano Extrta White Not Paper with
                                                            mixed media 55cm x 45cm


A few weeks ago, I indulged in a few tubes of Daniel Smith watercolour paints, and one of the colours I chose was his 'Moonglow' which is marketed as a beautiful colour for creating shadows. Eager to try it out and see what it could do, I painted a cluster of lilac edged clematis. These flowers have very wrinkled edges to their petals, so lots of delicate shadows are needed to show this feature. I mixed tiny amounts of the flower colour ( Quinachridone Magenta ) with the Moonglow to paint all the leaf curls. Then strengthened the mix with a little more Moonglow to paint the very light cast shadows around the centres etc. I also used the Moonglow as part of the mix of Hookers Green. Prussian Blue, Windsor Green and Quinachridone Magenta to paint the background. In this painting I decided to limit the dark background to the centre of the painting and leave the edges pale. Hope you like the results!

                                                       Fabriano Artistico Rough Paper
                                                      Extra White 300gm  30cm x 45cm