Collage : Delphiniums

Time for another attempt at the mixed media method. This time the flowers were to be Delphiniums. I say Delphiniums in the loosest sense as the finished painting will only be a very vague representation of the actual flowers. I did want something with lots of little flowers this time, to see if they had the same possibilities as the bigger blooms.
The system was exactly the same as for the 'Daisies ( post before last ) so I set about painting the background first, to use similar colours to the flower colours that I was going to use. Whilst the paint was still wet, I added salt in spire-like shapes to reflect the flower spikes. This was then put aside to dry.

I used a number of colours for the background including Ultramarine Pink, Quinachridone Violet, Apatite Green, Quinachridone Rust and Pthalo Blue, These are mainly Daniel Smith or Graham paints. The paper is my usual Fabriano Artistico Extra White 300g.
I then took a second piece of paper, a bit of a cheaper brand -Centenaire Not 300g- because lots of it gets cut away and thrown out! This time I used the flower colours, many similar to the background colours, but trying to be very delicate.

When both pieces were completely dry, (the above looks much more blue than the actual painting. I am not sure why the camera overstated that colour) I drew flower shapes onto the Centenaire paper, trying to use the areas of colour which pleased me most. Having done that, I then had to carefully cut around the blooms, leaving some as spikes and then cutting around some separate flowers to scatter into the painting.
Using PVA glue, I stuck the flower spikes and the individual flowers onto the background and patiently held them down until they stayed flat. Again, a wait for them to dry, and then I was able to paint some detail into the flowers, add some darks to the central background and finally lightly paint in a couple of leaves.Hope You enjoy looking!

                                                    'Delphiniums'      (40cm x 30cm)

                                   
                                                   'Delphiniums'   (detail)

'Reflections'

The subject at Avon valley Artists this week was 'Reflections'. Any interpretation and any medium. This type of wide brief always brings forth some excellent interpretations and that is often one of the most interesting parts of the viewing at the end of the session.
I had an idea in my head about how I wanted the finished painting to look, but did not have any idea of how to achieve it,
I wanted the reflections to be fairly obvious, but not the surface on which the reflection was cast. That was to be left mainly to the imagination of the viewer.
I did a bit of prep work before the session and drew in the upper flowers and very lightly marked out the placing of the reflections in the lower half of the painting, The dividing line became a series of diagonals with broken stems.
It was all a bit hit and miss, but I tried to keep the colours fresh and not worry too much about accuracy. At the end of the session, I was quite pleased with the result

                                                   'Tulip Reflections'   300lb Rough
                                                   Fabriano Artistico  25cm x 35cm

When I got the painting home and had lived with it a few days, I felt that the passage through the middle was a little too strong, so removed it from its mount and I washed away some of the Ultramarine Blue and replaced it with a lighter blue mixed with green and this seemed to remove a bit of the strength of the barrier between the tulips and their reflections. The difference is quite small so I have not re-photographed it as I do not think there will be much difference in the reproduction. When it came to framing the finished painting I spent some time deciding how much of the top and bottom of the painting to remain seen. In the end I opted to crop the flowers and the reflections fairly closely which I think strengthens the painting, but has the added advantage of removing some slightly sludgy passages at the base of the painting

Mixed Media

Ten days is a long time for me not to have done any painting, but life at home has been very busy without a single morning or afternoon free to get into the studio. Also, at Art Club on Thursday of last week we were doing a drawing exercise, so that lost an opportunity to get the watercolours out. Drawing is not really my thing which maybe one of the reasons I was drawn to painting flowers. Who is going to argue that the petal or leaf shape is not totally accurate. Over time my drawing skills have improved, but I would not choose to do it, although I am aware that the experts say we should draw for 10 mins every day! For the drawing exercise I chose some pitcher plants. I really do not like the idea of carnivorous plants, but they have lovely shapes and markings, I used a 2B pencil on cartridge paper.

To make up for my lack of opportunity to paint, I spent some time on both weekend days in the studio having fun with some collage work. I try to keep the choice of flowers simple so that they are easy to cut around. I will try more complex shapes when I am sure the painting will work - more experience needed at the moment. What I really like about this process is the ability to really splash the background around without fear of spoiling the flower area. No more carefully painting around shapes to get a good background!

                                                     'Daisies' Mixed media on Fabriano
                                                      Artistico Extra White 44cm x 30cm

In hind sight I should have photographed each stage to show you how I did it. Maybe next time I will rememnber! Anyway, I started by painting the background on the Artistico paper. Wetting some areas,and adding paint, putting paint on to dry paper and spraying, both with plain water and water containing a few drops of ox gall to help mobility of paint. I then added a little sea salt to some areas to improve textural interest.
Whilst this was drying (it took some time as there was lots of water!)  I took a sheet of lighter weight and cheaper paper  (Lots gets thrown away)  and lightly painted wet in wet  areas of Moonglow, Rose of Ultramarine, Pthalo Blue and Cadmium Yellow in very loose areas from where I hoped to cut out the daisies.
When the Daisy page was dry, I drew the flowers in appropriate places and cut around them. I now had lovely daisy shapes already palely coloured with delicate shadows and markings.
The next bit was emotionally difficult as the background had worked so well,  that I could not make up my mind which bit to hide. I wanted it all to show!!

Anyway, needs must and I carefully pasted the flowers to the background using PVA medium. The petals have a tendancy to curl upwards when damp so patience is required.

Finally, I had the pleasure of re-defining petals, strengthening shadows and adding the stems, lines and splatters to the overall painting.  I splattered quite heavily with white acrylic ink around the edges of the petals to take away some of the harshness of the cut lines, trying to blend the collage pieces a little more into the background. Hope it worls for you!            

'In The Garden'

Last weeks topic at club was 'In The Garden', so a lovely chance to do something a bit floral. I collected the picture below during a recent trip to France. He is a doctor and she is an emerging garden fanatic. All the really old magazines are kept to put in the surgery waiting room, and I am allowed to help myself to any photos that I think might be useful for future paintings.

Funnily enough it was not the flowers that attracted me to the image, but the lovely pots with their diagonal reflections that got my juices going. Not that I had any idea how to render the surface of the pots to portray their lovely finish, but was prepared to give it a go. I was also very attracted to the clump of cream grasses in the foreground, lightly tinted with beautiful yellows and pinks,

I did a drawing to the best of my ability and then put random washes of pink and yellow and green where the grasses would go. When the washes were dry I then  used masking fluid (I prefer Pebeo Liquid Gum) to mask out the grasses and the stems of the agapanthus flowers in the pots.
I proceeded to paint the picture using lots of my favouite Apatite Green by Daniel Smith and used Moonglow and Rose Of Ultramarine  to tackle the pots.
When all was done I removed the masking fluid to reveal patches of pink and yellow and green on the grasses, and painted the stems of the flowers. Finally I used a mixture of paint and pastel to put in the flower heads, trying to keep them secondary to the pots, and I used a darker mixture of the Moonglow and Pink of Ultramarine to paint in the cast shadows.

'Pots of Agapanthus' Watercolour

on Centenaire Rough 140lb

25cm x 35cm

Looking at the finished painting, I would have done better to darken considerably the r.h.sides of the two pots, and given them longer  cast shadows on the ground on the same side. Difficult to rectify now that the masking fluid has been removed from the grasses! Lesson learnt, hopefully for next time.

Cherry Time

 Although the weather has been lovely and the garden has called, I have still found the time to do quite a bit of painting. I have been looking for subjects which , although they include flowers, have a bit of variation about  them. Not sure yet that I have got it right, but am quite pleased with the result and the comments from Club members on Thursday was favourable. The only bit I would like to change is the two central buds. They      seem a bit stiff, as cherry blossom tends to gently hang more than that, but I am afraid to spoil the painting,  although it is not too late to add a couple of suggested buds behind the lower one of the two. Maybe I will give it a go, before I mount and maybe frame it for the exhibition. Hope you enjoy looking.

                                            'Cherry Time'    Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico
                                            Extra White Rough. 36cm x 26cm

I used lots of Opera Rose and Quinacridone Magenta for the flowers with Ultramarine Violet in the shadows.
To avoid a 'too pink' painting I deliberately chose to paint slightly yellow cherries, so I used Alizarin Crimson and Indian Yellow. I then used the Alizarin Crimson in the top left corner of the background to link the two areas together and added a little Quinacridone Rust to the left of the bowl to help link it all together. (In the original, this band of colour is much more subtle, not sure why the scanner has picked it up so strongly!) Hope you think it works.

Another new book!

As if my book shelf was not already bursting at the seams, I have just bought Shirley Trevina's new book 'Breaking The Rules Of Watercolour'. I pre-ordered it from Amazon, so it was eagerly awaited, as she has been a great inspiration to me in the past. I have also been to a couple of her demonstrations at the craft fair at Patchings Farm in Nottinghamshire, and I found her a most charismatic speaker and demonstrator!

There is lots to read and look at, some old friends and lots of new work. I have thoroughly enjoyed my initial delve into the pages, but I do have a couple of comments.... I feel that some of the paintings are photoed just a tad too close for me, they take something away from the work, which I feel should be viewed from a bit of a distance to get the full effect, and her green work in France is not really to my taste. I hope she does not go too far along this route, and lose sight of the style of painting that I so much admire. That said the book is gloriously colourful and does exactly what it says on the jacket!

The arrival of the book reminded me of how complex some of her paintings are, especially the backgrounds, and what an amazing amount of resources she must have collected over the years. I thought I might have a go at something in her style! My attempts are far too tightly produced, I so wish I could get the hang of this free approach to watercolour, but instantly the subject is complex and contains lots of small elements everything tightens again. Must keep trying harder!

Here is the resultant painting, hope you enjoy looking.

                                                        'Spring Flowers'   Watercolour on
                                                        140lb Fabriano Artistico Extra
                                                                  White

I am pleased with the way in which all the weight is in the top part of the painting and the bottom left area fades away to very little. Will try that again, we so often do it the other way around. I do find yellow flowers difficult to get right, I think it is something to do with choosing what colour to use for the shadow areas. They so quickly look dirty.

Daniel Smith Paints

Time to start a new painting, and I had a determination to see exactly what I could do with the new range of paints that I have recently acquired. That makes it sound as if I have bought the whole range all in one go, but that is far from the truth. Daniel Smith Watercolours are, in my experience, beautifully textured paints with lots of exciting colours, but they come with a heafty price tag. I already have a goodly stock of artist quality paints bought over time, 'just in case I cannot afford to replace in the future' which I must use up before they begin to deteriorate, but I cannot help but be tempted by the Daniel Smith range, so I have been buying one or two slowly over a few months every time Peter does us a mass order at Art Group (avoids postage costs). As others need replacing I will certainly acquire more!
At the moment I have seven or eight tubes with names such as 'Moonglow' and 'Rose of Ultramarine' and so I set about painting  something predominantly with these paints and only using the likes of Winsor and Newton or Graham and Co if I didn't have what I needed in Daniel Smith. It was lovely to mix the creamy paints on the palette, and also use them straight from the tube. The colours are really vibrant so they give the whole range from pale to really dark depending on the amount of water that is added. I have a green called 'Green Apatite Genuine' which I find a really natural green, and when mixed with Indigo, Paynes Grey or Burnt Sienna works well for my dark areas of background.

The full list of  of colours that I have at the moment comprises: Hookers Green, Pyrol Red, Green Apatite, Opera Pink, Quinachridone Magenta, Rose of Ultramarine, and Moonglow. I used the last five of these in the Iris painting below, together with a few others to produce a painting with which I am very pleased.

In order to concentrate on the effects of the paints, and to test them effectively, I am afraid that it was back to the comfort zone, and away with the freer experimental approach!

'Pink Iris'  35 x 50cm

Fabriano Extra White Rough 300gms

Maybe the shadows should be a bit darker, but I hadn't the courage to mix the colour any deeper, I was afraid of over doing it. I find this the hardest part of the painting, and as it has to be the last thing I do I am always afraid that all the preceding hard work will be for nothing if I mess it up, so I lack the courage to be really bold. Thank you for looking, hope you enjoy it.