The Poppies are Popping

My garden has been giving me a treat with red poppies really putting on a show in the sun.  Yesterday I sat out for about an hour and sketched them with charcoal, then moved inside to play with colour.

First the charcoal sketch, I tried to get good contrast tonally, something that isn't easy with red so this exercise helped me later.

Poppies - charcoal sketch

Now the first play with colour to choose a palette.

Poppy - colour study

Then this morning I tried to use what I learned in a fun, loose painting.  Choice of paper was important, I wanted to keep the looseness of the colour study, so I chose hot pressed fabriano artistico extra white.  I am really happy with the result!

Some Like it Hot - 15" x 11", watercolour on Fabriano HP

A rare landscape

I don't really know why but I rarely feel like painting landscapes and this has led to me being out of practice with them.  Today I thought of a photo I'd taken several years ago and decided to have a go, partly to see whether my technique and style had developed the way my floral work has, and partly just for a change!

I went small, 7.5" square, an used a large brush for most of it, only picking up the small brush for the detail towards the end.  I think it worked out pretty well, loose without being messy and I didn't overwork it..... what do you think?

Symonds Yat - a birds Wye view

Last Year's Iris

We're suffering miserable spring weather in the UK at the moment, it has been cold and wet and miserable and I think the flowers are sulking!  I went through my photos from previous springs and found a lovely iris to cheer me up.  Finances being tight at the moment I need to sell more and figured small work would be more affordable, so I'm working on a series of small square works.... fingers crossed this strategy works!

Square Dance - 7.5" x 7.5", watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white paper

Buy Square Dance

Spring Inspiration

I think spring is my favourite season, almost all of my favourite flowers show up at this time of year and the inspiration is wonderful.  Flowers that appear later in the year just don't have the same appeal to me, I much prefer cheerful little primroses to blousy roses, I love the frills and flounces of irises but dahlias leave me a bit cold.  I keep searching for late summer flowers which will give me the same thrill of excitement but so far I search in vain.

Here's one of the earliest spring flowers, the glorious magnolia stellata which has the most amazing shape and is tough enough to stand up to the late snow showers and frosts.  I'll be honest, white flowers aren't my favourites, I prefer colour, but if you look closely you see yellows and pinks and blues within the white petals.

Magnolia Stellata - 15" x 11", watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white

This morning I see the first iris opening in the garden and I've been painting last years flowers, anticipating the thrill of seeing each new bud burst..... I love spring!

Exciting News!

I've had some amazing, exciting news recently which I wanted to share with my blog friends.  My painting "Cosmic Poppies" has won the SAA Amateur Artist of the Year award for 2012!  The news came in a phone call from the Chairman of the Society for All Artists and to say I was speechless would be an understatement, in fact I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried tears of joy for the whole day!

This is a huge honour for me, I have never, ever won anything before, and this was only the second time I entered the SAA competition..... the first time I didn't even get anything shortlisted.  My prizes are an engraved goblet and £100 for art materials, plus my painting will be featured in the SAA members magazine "Paint" in July with a short interview.

I realise you've all seen this before but here it is again, my award-winning watercolour!

Cosmic Poppies - Watercolour on paper, 15" x 11"

So much for my promise!

More than a month has passed since my last post, how useless am I??

As promised, my experiments first.  I decided to try to use some of the paper which was otherwise wasted on my failed paintings, so I obliterated one disaster with gesso and set to work with more watercolour.  It's a great exercise in loosening up and it was fun!

Mellow Yellow - Watercolour on Gesso, 15" x 11"

 

 

 

 

 

Gesso allows you to build up texture and you can also lift pigment right back to the white of the gesso so if you don't like something, just wet it and lift off!  It's not something I'll do every day, but as a fun exercise it's well worth trying occasionally.

Catch Up Time

I'm so bad at updating this blog, sorry everyone, I promise to try harder!

Since the cosmic poppies I've done some pure watercolour but I've also been inspired to try something new. 

First the pure watercolour, Birthday Lilies seemed like a battle when I was working on it but turned out well in the end.

 

Birthday Lilies

15" x 11"

Then I had a couple of absolute disasters which I won't torture you with, they really were terrible!  I discovered the blog of an old friend, Emily Lagore, who has inspired me to try altered books/journalling, but I had to get materials before I could start so no progress on that beyond the shopping :D

More in my next post!

Cosmic WIP

Cosmic Poppies

15" x 11", watercolour on Fabriano Artistico extra white

The news that I was included in Robin Berry's new book (see my previous blog post) inspired me, and I found my work going in a new direction. Cosmic Poppies is the result, and I believe it's my best ever work.  I had the reference in my "to paint" file since June last year, these unusual oriental poppies are part of a huge plant in my garden and I always wonder at the strange colour combinations - both magenta and red in one bloom, another almost completely red, and some more of a purple shade.  I worked with the colours and chose an analogous palette, using ever one of the eight reds on my palette for impact.

I recorded my progress in a series of photos, shared below.

 

A wonderful start to 2012

Just over a week ago I learned that my painting "Pretty Peas" (above) has been included in a new watercolour book by Robin Berry, a huge privilege and my first published work!

Having received my copy of "Compendium of Watercolour Techniques - 200 Tips, Techniques and Trade Secrets" I am even more thrilled, this is a fabulous book, very well written and illustrated, and I can recommend it both to beginners and more experienced watercolour painters (and no, I don't get any money from the sales!)  It's already inspired me to try something different which has got to be a good thing.

Sun Sisters

I'm back!  September and October were crazy, with Adult kids coming and going and a solo exhibition to organise, but things have calmed down somewhat now thankfully!

Sun Sisters

15" x 11", watercolour on 140lb Artistico paper

This was the last painting I completed before the exhibition, in between mount cutting and framing the other 20+ watercolours.  I painted it from life very quickly and love how it turned out.  I'm really enjoying working from life now after years of being afraid of it!

Exploration of a theme

I don't usually paint in series, preferring to do different flowers as the mood takes me, but I have recently become just a little bit obsessed with lacecap hydrangeas.  I've experimented with different papers and new ways to depict the delicate flowers, learning something each time.  Strangely I started with the largest, a half sheet of hot pressed Artistico, and have got progressively smaller.

The second attempt was a quarter sheet of Whatman, a very different paper.

 

Third, and last for now, a smaller study in analogous colours, measuring just 10" x 7".  I think this is my favourite so far.

The Yellow Spectrum

I know it's been a while, but I did finish the roses at last!  Here are the final two stages:

 

Overall I am very happy with the result, and I might have beaten my rose phobia!

 

I hate roses!

They're beautiful and fragrant but they're so complicated!!!!  Every so often I need to challenge myself to paint something I don't enjoy, so here's my WIP of yellow (in for a penny, in for a pound!) roses.

I started by wetting the paper after very lightly sketching in the basic shapes, then dropped in azo yellow, cad. yellow and quin. coral, then added some greens for background while the paper was drying, which left some good lost edges. Now I gradually built up the rose shapes with glazes....

See the ugly man in the rose on the left?  Now I had to get rid of him!  I also worked on the background.

The ugly man is starting to vanish!  I gradually shaped the roses by adding shadows.

 

Sick of yellow, I did a little green leaf and the rose bud on the right

And this is where it stands now, the roses are taking shape nicely!

Iris from life

It's always good to get your observational skills honed by painting from life, but I'm ashamed to admit that I rarely do so.  I don't enjoy painting out of doors, there are too many distractions and the light changes constantly.  Last week a single flower snapped from its stem and I brought it inside to paint it quickly, before it wilted.

Wasn't it a stunner?  My friend Janet said "that's not a flower, it's a floozy!" and I agree!  I went straight in with the paintbrush, no pencil sketch, and was amazed at how well it turned out.  I added an invented stem and foliage and here's the result:

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

We hadn't mown the lawn for a few weeks and the daisies were taking over..... wonderful!  I know that most gardeners think of them as weeds, but I love them.... they cheer up boring green lawns! I took a bunch of photos, knowing that I had to paint them.

Wild Daisies

7" x 7"

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico paper

I wanted the painting to be loose to suit the subject, starting by pouring water in rivulets down the paper and dropping yellow and a touch of rose into the wet area, letting the colours merge.  Then I spattered weak quin. rose in places.  I am usually too nervous to do this kind of thing when a painting is almost finished, afraid to ruin all that work, so it makes sense to get it out of the way early!  

After that, it was just a case of painting around the petals (I rarely use masking fluid now since discovering several older works had yellowed where masking had been). I used very juicy azo yellow and pthalo blue for a vibrant background, letting the colours do their own mixing on the paper.  The flower centres were added using azo and cadmium yellow, then I painted the pthalo blue shadows and tiny gaps between the petals using the background colours.  I might just paint more, it was fun to use this extremely limited palette!

Poppy Power

I am a control freak.... there, I said it!  I hate letting go, I like to know what is going to happen...... I don't even like surprise gifts!

I'm trying hard to let go a little, so with this painting I didn't sketch it out first.  I quite like what happened, it's loose without being too messy, and actually looks something like I was hoping it would.

Poppy Power

Watercolour on Fabriano Artistico rough

15" x 11"

Backlit

I can't resist standing flowers in the window on sunny days, the lighting effects can be magical.  This is one of those days - I had a bunch of pale yellow daffodils, you know the fancy kind that look nothing like daffs?  There were too many for the vase, I squeezed in as many as I could so the arrangement looked like a lollipop, and stood the vase in the window.

The lighting was wonderful!  Browsing my reference photos for something to paint last night, this one called out.  It's not at all my usual style but I thought I'd have a go, just a small one to see what I could do with it.  I'm happy, it's loose and clearly about the light.... success!

Daffs for Mum

Watercolour

7.25" x 7.5"

Not quite white

I've enjoyed the challenge that comes with painting white flowers, getting the balance between coloured shadows and white highlights right.  I'm very pleased with how this has worked, the shadows are delicate but not boring grey.

 

Blushing Bride

Watercolour on paper, 15" x 11"

Tree Peony WIP

I drew out a new flower last night and after just a few hours it is already taking shape nicely!  The beauty of white flowers is that you only need to paint the shadows...

The Last Dance

I completed a new floral yesterday, this time of something which has fascinated me for years...... the way flowers change as they die, yet still have a unique beauty.

 

The Last Dance

Watercolour, 14" x 11"

AVAILABLE

I painted a single tulip with one drooping petal some years ago.  I think it's a subject I need to explore further.

Tired Tulip

Watercolour, 10" x 14"

SOLD