At the beginning of October it was a particularly significant birthday for the most significant person in my life!
In these restricted times – it’s meant that the celebrations are being eked out over many weeks, which is proving to be a real treat for all concerned. It’s nice to have so many things to look foward to over such a relatively short space of time.
Another happy coincidence is that our flat feels like it’s become a temporary florists. There have been some beautiful bouquets of flowers ranging from the small and hand picked to the large and artfully arranged.
We’re not usually so festooned with florals so I felt I couldn’t let this time pass without trying to record it in some way.
Also, as my last floral effort was so well received, I was keen to have another go! Here’s how I got on:
I’m feeling surprisingly pleased with how this turned out.
I particularly like the sense of the bright and diffused light flooding into the room. As a representation of our front room, it genuinely does look like this! (though I appreciate that you’ll have to take my word for this.)
I was also pleased with how the flowers turned out. They were made more manageable by being mainly silhouetted but I still think there’s still a painterly energy to them, and I was pleased that I didn’t get overly fussy with them.
Must confess that even thought I’m not painting as much as I might like, it feels good to be painting with a little more ‘vim’ and enthusiasm. I can only hope that by saying this out loud I have completely jinxed myself!
4 thoughts on “Flowers in watercolour”
Hi John, the pencil lines really add to the impact of this painting…the looseness of those lines gives me something to learn, certainly! I guess it shows a high level of confidence.
Hi Ray and thanks for this, I’m not so sure that they indicate a high level of confidence or just shabby drawing! I was purposefully trying to keep the background slightly vague and ‘out of focus’ so I wasn’t looking to have any hard edges. Pleased that they work for you though!
I do like your floral work and find it interesting after so much rendition of objects often requiring preliminary photography . I hate being out in the cold and so usually draw/paint indoors . Plants are very challenging but at least stay still , unlike my cats . I have never tried anything from a photo reference – how does it compare to doing it ‘live’ ?
Wp has stopped my icon being shown as a ‘like’ – I do not know why . I now turn up as an undifferentiated person – but I am still here !
Hi Rukshana and thanks so much for this. I am however sad to say that this painting was done from a photo, not from life! Circumstances are such that I had to set this scene up on a day with the light was good etc, photograph it, and then paint it when I had the time! My general experience of painting from life versus from photos is that they there’s a lot more energy to those paintings from life! With photos, when you’re rarely bound by changing light or time, I often find that the temptation is to overwork paintings. I know that painting more from life would be the most significant single thing that I could do to improve my painting – but at the moment (job/family/etc) make this particularly difficult! Sorry to hear you’re have troubles with WP – I’ve had a number of people contact me to say they’re experience similar difficulties! Thanks again Rukshana, all the best