Saturday, April 23, 2011

"Pansy Print" 8x10 Acrylic on canvas


I didn't think that I would be painting pansies again, but they are one of my favorite garden flowers. They are easy to plant and care for, and come in many colors. I think the orange-yellows, blues or periwinkle varieties are the ones I like best. A few years back, while vacationing in Victoria, B.C., Canada., I spotted several planted rows of pansies in one of the many large flower beds that are situated by the harbor. Anyone who has been to the harbor in front of the Empress Hotel will know what I mean. Flowers are planted in large numbers all along the harbor and throughout the city every spring. You can't help but notice all the flower varieties, the city is a haven for flower lovers! While the tourists are taking camera pictures of the scenery, I seem to stick out from the rest and focus my camera on the flowers instead. My husband thinks I'm a little nuts, but does understand my need for reference photos to use in my paintings. The painting that I did above was done by combining 2 separate photos together, and I painted the flowers, leaves and stems at random against a dark blue background which was painted last. I find that as you look at it, it gives you the impression that you are looking at floral wallpaper. This little painting was a joy to paint.

Saturday, April 09, 2011

"White Rose" 30x30 Acrylic on canvas


The White Rose painting is now finished. Its done in the way Georgia O'Keeffe painted her large flower paintings, only I painted it in my own realistic style. I used my own photo that I had of this flower and sketched it loosely on to the canvas. I then erased the pencil marks a little at a time as I was painting section by section. The paint covers the faded pencil marks I made previously. Its a good idea to use the best white paint color you can find on the market to cover the marks as best you can, because it can show through if your not careful. White can be transparent. The white of this flower is on the cool side and so I mixed paint colors in blues and greens and added touches of yellows just to give it some punch and a little warmth. I think an area of this painting I really find interesting are the leaves at the bottom. All in all, I'm pleased with the way this painting turned out.  

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Painting in Progress 2 White Rose close up

I am about three quarters done on my painting. I still have the left side to finnish and do some minor touch ups to the whole painting towards the end. I added a little more color as well to give it a bit more life, but the goal here is to keep it light and soft looking, always keeping it looking white as much as possible.
So far, so good!

Sunday, April 03, 2011

Painting in Progress, White Rose close up



I rented a movie over the weekend about Georgia O'Keeffe, a very famous American Artist. It starred, American actress Joan Allen as Georgia and Jeremy Irons as Alfred Stieglitz. To make a long story short, it was done in 2009 but I had not seen it till now. I really enjoyed watching this film, the performances were absolutely wonderful and you got to see in the film some Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings ( not sure if they are the real ones shown) and watched her (Joan) paint on the canvas like Georgia did, in her style. I got so inspired that I had to try to paint a large flower painting in her style myself. Its very hard to see by the photo what the flower looks like. The flower I'm doing is a type of white rose, taken up close. I have to use alot of titanium white and a little yellow ochre to get a creamy white, a bit of phthalo blue and a tiny bit of black to grey the colors a bit to get the shadows. I realize that its not easy to make a flower look white. You have trouble seeing the contrast between all the petals, but I am going to try to do my best on this one because this one will be my painting to hang in my home. ( not to suggest that I don't take care in all the paintings I do, well you know what I mean.) I do apologize for the condition of the photos! Will keep you posted.