Pattys Plum - final painting

I have a confession - I don't always enjoy the painting process! Shocking, I know, but sometimes it's a struggle, decisions don't come easily, and getting to the end is a battle.

Occasionally it seems like a watercolour just paints itself, the brush has a life of its own, and you arrive at the final painting feeling like you hardly did anything! This was one of those paintings and, as always seems to happen when I enjoy the process, I love the painting!

Pattys Plum
14" x 11"
watercolours on Fabriano Artistico extra white 140lb paper

Pattys' Plum WIP continued...

This has been so much fun to work on! I loved painting the ruffled petals and dark markings! These are the last WIP images, I'll post the finished work later.

Pattys' Plum

I've been working on a new watercolour of a Pattys' Plum poppy - a wonderful ruffled flower in rich plum shades. I'm loving the challenge of depicting the wrinkled, paper-like petals with pigment and brush!




I should get at least close to completing it tomorrow...... fingers crossed!

Caught by the bug!

It seems dandelions in paint are as hard to escape as dandelions in the garden are! Once I started thinking of them I was surprised to come up with several different ideas for colours and compositions so I am going to explore more in the next few weeks, see what I can come up with!

Here is one more I've done, this time sticking to a cooler palette of colours. I really love these shades of blue and green together!

Dandelion on Jade and Blue
10" x 10", watercolour on paper

The exciting news is that this, with several more of my floral watercolours, might be appearing on greeting cards throughout the UK very soon! As soon as things are finalised I will share the details here.

A return to an old favourite

A few years ago, I was a little obsessed with painting dandelions. I don't know how many I did, but they were popular and always sold quickly. Eventually I grew tired of the same subject and moved onto other things. Last week I was contacted by a small, independent greeting card company who are interested in making cards using some of my work, and the owner mentioned how much he liked the dandelions! I almost groaned, but then I thought "why not?" so here are my two new dandelion paintings!

Cobalt Wishes

Three O'Clock

Hopefully they'll be what the company were thinking of!

Cathedral Gold WIP

I had this reference, golden lilies in the gardens of Hereford Cathedral, in my "to paint" file for several years, but somehow I always passed it over. I imagine I was avoiding the numerous challenges it offered - the first being yellow! It's so hard to shade yellow without ending up with mud. My pet hate is the recommended complementary colour, violet, which results in a dull grey. I prefer to use colours which are closer to yellow - orange and red.

Stage one, I'm already getting some good form in the flowers using azo yellow, winsor yellow deep and alizarin crimson. The background is started using the yellows and indanthrene blue.


The first lily is pretty much done now, the stamens are painted in a strong red made with WYD and AC.


Starting to add form to the main flower, while also working on the background elements. My second challenge was the foliage, and I chose to keep it fairly loose with quick brushstrokes in AY and adding blue wet in wet.


Taking shape nicely now, most of the background flowers are done.


Now the really strong shadows are added to the main lily, using an orange made with AC and WYD. The last of the foliage is painted in the same way as the rest.


Now to finish the background and another dilemma - do I paint over the fiddly foliage or paint around it? I decided on a combination of both so some would be more defined and others would blend into the rest of the background.


A few finishing touches and it's done!

Catch-up time!

I'm still busy painting, although I've also been spending time gardening with the weather perfect at the moment!

What have I done since the evening primrose? Well first were the ox-eye daisies, beautifully sunny and completely about summer! The challenge in this painting was in depicting the movement of the flowers in a gentle breeze.

Summer Breeze
15" x 11", watercolours on Fab. Artistico 140lb

Then Mollie Jones suggested I might enjoy painting hollyhocks, so I thought "why not?" and dug out a reference I photographed in the gardens of Hereford Cathedral a few years ago. I really enjoyed this one, especially the foliage towards the bottom. Choir Practice
11" x 15", watercolours on Fab. Artistico 140lb

And this one, painted between gardening sessions, is of cowslips which, unusually for me, are actually growing in my garden right now!

Spring Celebration
11" x 15", watercolours and acrylic ink on Fab. Artistico 140lb

Painting summer in spring

This seems to be my normal habit - through winter and spring, I am more likely to paint summer and autumn, then through summer I might paint spring. Winter doesn't usually come into it, there is little colour in the garden, the lighting is poor, so the inspiration isn't there.

I think it's because I need time to allow ideas to develop in my head, or maybe I simply procrastinate too much!

Here's another work based on last summer. The evening primrose in my garden put on an amazing display, with the clearest yellow, papery flowers opening every day and giving out a delicious scent that filled the air. Yellow is an incredibly difficult colour in watercolour, avoiding muddy shadows is a challenge, but I am fairly happy with this one.

Evening Primrose
11" x 15"
Watercolours on 140lb Fab. Artistico X.white CP

Something different!

It's unusual for me to be inspired by something other than flowers, they seem to call to me unlike anything else, but last weekend it happened!

I saw this adorable little girl, obviously totally absorbed in the task of feeding pigeons with scraps of leftover bread, and couldn't resist her charm.

Feed the Birds
Watercolour on 140lb Fabriano Artistico extra white

Fleeting Beauty

Last summer my garden was full of vibrant colour from delicate opium poppies which moved with the gentle breezes on warm, sunny days. The fragile flowers only looked their best for a day, fading and losing their petals all too soon, but there was always another bud ready to open.

Fleeting Beauty
13x10, watercolours on
Fabriano Artistico extra white HP

Bearded Iris - Small Format Macro

Bearded Iris
Watercolour on 140lb Fabriano Artistico, 5" x 5"

Here's my second small format macro floral, a colourful bearded iris up close and personal! The orangey yellows really stand out against the purple, making a small painting with big impact!

There's something about the square format, it forces you to think carefully about composition, using the space efficiently. I'll be doing more!

Spring is coming!

This is a daffodil from last spring, but it won't be long before they flower again - green shoots are appearing all over the garden, even on plants which I was sure were dead after the hard winter we had (the coldest in 30 years!)

Daffodil Macro, 5" x 5"
watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white CP

The first in a short series of small format floral macros, painted after I discovered a sheet of paper with a fault. I tore the paper into smaller pieces so I wouldn't waste all of it, and I'm quite enjoying this size and format! Next is a macro view of a bearded iris, then maybe another daffodil!

Bearded Ladies

Sometimes you have an idea and it just doesn't work - that's what happened with the little blue iris painting I was working on, it just hasn't worked out the way I envisioned. Maybe I can rescue it, but it's more likely to end up in my scrap pile.

So I decided to move on to a reference that had been in my "to do" file since last summer, two beautiful purple bearded iris. This was a completely different experience, I had a clear vision and enjoyed every brushstroke!

Bearded Ladies
14" x 10", watercolour on 140lb Fabriano Artistico extra white, cold pressed

Blue Eyes - WIP

The first colour of the year in the garden, these delightful little flowers almost look like they don't belong among the greys and browns! I don't really know where I'm headed with this one, I'm hoping the composition will develop naturally as I paint.

Stargazer - backward WIP!

Blogger is fun, you never know which way round your photos are going to show! lol OK, so here is the finished painting, with backwards WIP below - start at the bottom and work up for the progression ;o)






I used my new favourite colours - Daniel Smith Quin. coral, and W&N Cobalt Turquoise. They mix gorgeous muted purples!

Allium finished and onto the next!

I did complete the allium, or "Nectaroscordum Bulgaricum", but only after some headaches. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I didn't. The background wasn't working at all...So I decided to crop the painting from vertical format to square and wash over the background with more dramatic colours!

And here is the finished work, much better!

Quiet Elegance

10" x 10", watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white CP 140lb

Is it an allium?

I have some of these bulbs in my garden and I'm pretty sure that when I bought them they weren't labelled as allium, not sure what they were called though. Anyway, this is the start of a new watercolour based on a photo I took in my friend Janet Thomas' beautiful garden last summer. This is only a small section of the whole composition.


There's a long way to go yet, hopefully I'll get most of the little florets finished tomorrow!

Finishing touches

The opium poppy is complete, it took 7 days of work and I was tired of seeing pink by the end - I'm
glad it's done!

Here are the last stages:Twirls and Curls
14" x 10"

Opium Poppy WIP

I've been working on this watercolour for several days now and still there is no end in sight. So many tiny details, plus the dark areas have needed several washes to achieve the depth I want. Here are the steps so far: