Tulips

I am really struggling to get back into the swing of things, so to try an help myself just enjoy the sense of putting paint on paper, I picked a bright bold photo that I had taken in the garden in the spring to paint at AVA this week. I altered the image slightly by putting the flowers in a pot rather than in the ground, and I did the minimum of drawing. I simply drew oval shapes where I thought the flowers should be, created a simple pot and identified the stems so that I was sure they would look natural in the vase. They looked a bit like wilting lollipops at this stage, but that's all the detail I wanted. Sorry there are still not pictures of each stage, but I forgot the camera battery wanted charging!

I simply mixed colours either on the paper or on the palette, and boldly painted in leaves, vase and flowers without much recourse to the photo. It enabled me to be free with the brushstrokes, and to regain a bit of confidence in my ability to create a reasonable image.

Now that I see it on the screen, I think I will strengthen the darks between the leaves and stems and the backs of the tulips, but I think it works ok, and after the bank holiday I think I will be ready to tackle the next painting.