Another busy week....and some great news!

Just when I thought I'd be able to get back to painting we had a surprise visit from good friends! It was amazing to see them all after 7 years, but it means I have nothing new to share.

I do have exciting news though - I have just signed a contract to license 6 of my watercolours for use on greeting cards! The 6 paintings selected are "Distilled Sunlight"(daffodils), "Song of Summer"(poppies), "Rainbow Tulips", "Summer Breeze"(daisies), "Drumstick Primula"and "Violas". This is how they should look as a group.

It's a huge step forward in my art career, hopefully this will lead to even bigger things!

A busy time

I've mostly been doing small sketches over the last couple of weeks, life has been busy with wonderful highs and a few lows. The biggest high was my eldest daughter's graduation ceremony on Friday! We travelled to North Wales on Thursday, staying the night in a hotel before the Friday morning ceremony at Bangor University. We were bursting with pride when our daughter walked onto the stage in the wonderful hall and was admitted to her degree, a BA Hons. in Criminology and Criminal Justice, by the Vice-Chancellor and the President of the University. Any lows were more than cancelled out.

The last finished painting I did before the trip was this, another loose floral on hot pressed paper. For once I'm going to share the reference, which is a photo I provided for the Mindbender challenge on the Painting Friends art forum. The challenge is to adapt the reference, by cropping, rotating, adding, subtracting, whatever you want to do to make the painting your own. I chose to just crop.

And here is my painting, a loose and pretty floral. Violas are so cheerful, I hope I managed to convey that feeling.

Violas
11"x15", watercolours on paper

Different styles for different flowers

When I look through my paintings I realise that I treat different flowers in very different ways. Some need to be very controlled, others work best when the paint is allowed to do the work without too much interference.

First, magnolias. They're very elegant flowers, on stiff branches and with waxy petals. I feel that these are best suited to the controlled approach, as you can see in this painting which I finished last weekend.

Magnolias
11" x 15" watercolour and acrylic ink on paper

The background is quite fluid and loose, but the flowers themselves much stiffer and well-defined.

Now the irises, much more delicate with ruffled petals which move easily in the breeze. Strong colours and lots of movement work really well, mostly wet-in-wet for exciting lost edges.

Iris Carnival
11" x 15", watercolours on paper

Finally poppies - loose, delicate washes for papery petals, wet-in-wet for soft edges and movement, soft colours for summer.

Summer Days
12" x 10", watercolours on paper

All three completed in the last week, but totally different.