Fireweed

My dad was telling me about his recent reminiscences of time spent in northern BC, and of how he remembered the profusion of wildflowers that grow there. I thought to myself how a painting of those flowers would make a nice little Father's Day gift. So I duly got busy and painted this incredible field of fireweed. But just as I was giving him the little 5 x 8 piece, a realization hit me that it wasn't fireweed, that he was missing, but rather Indian paint brush. I had painted the wrong flower! We had a good laugh over that one. Oh well. His birthday is next month.
Here I am continuing my adventures with casein paint. I've actually taken things to the next level by making my own. Milk and acid and alkali and water and pigment and you have casein paint. Not that hard to do. Really. This paint is so versatile.

Primroses

Our next door neighbour, Lynn, set out these sweet primroses at the end of their driveway in early spring. It was a sign of the riot of spring color to follow. And as a harbinger of good things to come, it needed to be painted. Continuing my attempts in gouache, I now wanted to paint something with more complexity and detail, and this was just the thing. I've learned that gouache responds well to my favorite 300 lb watercolor paper, which helps me achieve what I want. As well, a new firm small brush enabled me to capture the crinkly texture of the leaves and all the little details that I like to include. I must say, I do like gouache, and its got it's place.

Blue Iris

A few blocks from our home, there is a ditch between a road and someone's fence. And there, from this lowly location, grew a handful of blue bearded irises. I don't know how they got there, but they were largely overlooked as cars raced past. Determined to do something about that, I returned later with my camera, and found myself eventually right in the ditch (it was dry) and even getting honked at. Nonetheless, I got what I was after, and this is the result. 

Daffodils

We have a number of neighbours on our street who are exceptional gardeners. I, on the other hand, would rather paint flowers than tend them. As mentioned in the previous entry, Kathleen is a great gardener, and these are her daffodils. I started this painting in watercolor, but part way along, I decided to experiment with gouache, which is closely related to watercolor, but is opaque rather than transparent. This means that it is easier to work with, as mistakes can be covered, and its possible to change your mind and alter your course as you go. You sure can't do that with watercolor! I've heard it said that gouache is fun, and it is. Note to self: paint in gouache more often.

Watersoluble Oil

About three years ago, I bought a set of 'water mixable' oil paints. Seemingly a contradiction since we all know that oil and water don't mix, these paints really do just that. Oil painters can now paint without harsh chemicals, and watermedia painters, such as myself, may cautiously dip their toe in the mixable water, so to speak. So even though this blog entry is technically an oil painting, it still qualifies as 'light painted with water'.

I knew I wanted to give these oil paints a try when I bought them, but I had no idea it would take so long to get around to it. Oils have intimidated me. That is what other painters do. The ones who went to art school and learned all the rules. So when I finished this painting, using my self taught transferable skills, I gained a new sense of confidence. I felt like saying: HA! I just did an oil painting, so there!

In some ways I liked the experience, and in other ways I did not. I soon realized that what I liked about it were the ways in which it was similar to watercolor painting, and what I disliked were the ways in which it was not like watercolor painting. It was a nice place to visit, but it just wasn't home. Transparent watercolor remains my media of choice.

Pink Iris

Overall, 2008 had been a slow year for painting. As the year drew to a close, I finally finished this beautiful iris that had been started many months before during the studio tour. It sat, propped up on my drafting table, calling out to me to come and paint. It was nearly complete, but I knew it needed something more. At last, I darkened the background, and the petals burst forth in colorful triumph.

Amaryllis

This macro floral was painted in my usual way. I then mounted it onto a wooden panel and trimed the paper edges. The one inch panel sides were painted in casein, an opaque artist's paint. When dry, the whole thing was sprayed multiple times with a clear matte protective finish. In this way a watercolor painting may be hung without glass. It gives the painting a bold presence, resembling a work done in oil or acrylic.

Potted Amaryllis

The soft backlighting from the window is effective in this composition to highlight the delicate beauty of transperant petals. I am not much of a gardener myself; I would much rather paint a flower, than attempt to keep one alive!

Pink Lily

I really love it when a painting turns out realistically. It's one of the thrills I get when painting. As a realism painter, it is a goal that I strive for. I knew I was onto something with this beautiful lily when, as I painted, the photo illusion began to fool even me. This painting will be published in the Oxford Studio Tour 2009 brochure.

Poppy

This was not the first poppy I had painted, the other one had been done experimentally on watercolor canvas. This was done conventionally on 300 lb watercolor paper, as I nearly always use. Multiple glazes of pigment were used to bring out the flower's depth and vibrancy.

The Knave of Hearts

When Ian stayed with us in May while recovering from knee surgery, he brought along the now grown kitten, George Michael. I had painted him in casein during the Christmas holidays as seen in an earlier post. On this visit he was gradually allowed to discover the great outdoors. So making up for lost time spent as an indoor cat, he spent as much of his time as possible amongst the foliage and flowers that became his jungle. He stalked birds, climed trees and ran the length of the yard for the sheer freedom of it. He even squeezed through the fence a few times to explore the uncharted reaches of suburbia. After a while we got used to his comings and goings.

It came as a suprise, then, while taking pictures of my bleeding hearts for yet another floral painting, that Georgie's little face would appear in one of the photos. He really is just as impudent as he looks. Of the paintings that I have done, this is probably my favorite.

It marked, as well, a turning point for me. It would be the last painting of flowers that I would do for some time. That inquisitive little face lead me in a new direction.

Red Rose

There is just something about roses. I was drawn back to them again and again. If the rose is the classic flower, then the red rose is the most classic of all flowers. I had to paint one to add to my rose collection. Here was another of those tricky macro compositions where the view is so close that no background or greenery shows. The eye is attracted to strong contrasts, and I used them here to keep the work interesting. But too much of a thing is......too much, and I glazed over this painting repeatedly to reduce the stark 'posterized' effect that was first created.

I find it amazing that there were actually nine different pigments used in this one red rose:

three reds, two pinks, a blue, and three greens.

Lilacs

I am a great one for saving scraps. I get it from my mother, who grew up during the depression and therefore was a better scrap saver than me. But watercolor paper is not cheap, so surely something could be done with my growing accumulation of bits and pieces trimmed from larger works.

I'm not sure how many 2.5"x4" paintings I had paper saved for, but it certainly was a lot. It was high time that I tried a miniature painting.

This was similar to the hydrangea in that the composition would be vital, as would be the lighting, to avoid a boring painting. However, even if I failed and it was boring, because it was so small, it would only be a little boring........

I got out my smallest brushes and went to work. It reminded me of knitting a baby sweater. Because the stiches, or in this case brush strokes, were proportionately so small, the miniature took just as long to complete as a larger work. In the end, I felt as if I didn't have that much to show for all the work that went into it. If your monitor is like mine, what you see will actually be larger than the original.

But I was pleased with the result, so I guess I could say that it was at least a small success.

Peach Rose

Peach is my favorite color of rose. I particularily like the Peace rose, or Chicago Peace. Peach roses were a theme in our wedding. I wanted to make sure that while I was painting flowers, I would do a peach rose. Working as usual from the Wet Canvas reference image library, I chose one with an abundance of opened petals. It reminds me of a ruffled Victorian gown with lavish petticoats.

Hydrangea

Meanwhile, there were more flowers to paint. I had been considering for some time how I might manage a macro of a clustered flower, such as a hydrangea. Here, without a contrasting background, the challenge would be keep the composition from having wallpaper sameness. Getting a good composition through careful cropping of the original image was half the battle.

This one took me three weeks to complete, as I was attending to my son who stayed with us while recovering from knee surgery. See the earlier post of Ian skateboarding........

Primary Colors

Just as I was starting this dalhia, I came across another Wet Canvas tutorial, lead by JJ in Australia. In it students were confined to using just three primary colors in their painting. I realised that the dalhia would qualify, and so was able to join in this tutorial as well.

It is surprising just how much can be done with such a limited palette. But then after all, the standard printing process uses only the three primaries plus black. The trick for the artist is in choosing which of each three colors to use. For example should it be a cherry red or a rust red, or one of dozens of other reds. And should that red that is chosen be matched with a caribbean sea blue or a navy blue? Lemon yellow or buttercup or mustard or ochre?

These considerations, and others such as paint brand, lightfastness, staining /non-staining characteristics, transparant vs granular etc, meant in just a few years of experimentation, I had acquired just over 100 tubes of paint. I tried to determine which were my twenty-two favorites in order to have the best paints fit my painting pallette. In the end, I could not do it and therefore invented and built my own pallette which would hold 96 pigments. It consisted of dollar store daily vitamin organizers and a tempered glass cutting board from WalMart. Total cost: $10. Don't, however, ask me what those 100 tubes of paint cost...........

Daffodil

After all that color, I needed to paint something delicate. It was the time of year for daffodils anyway. I was trying different sizes and shapes, and felt that this would make a good square format. The challenge was not to let the flower's center become a boring bull's eye.

Char's Sunflower

It was finally time for me to tackle the second lesson in the macro tutorial: the vibrant sunflower. Char taught us using her own example, that really exagerating or even changing the original colors can lead to a more dynamic painting. I hesitated at first, wanting to stay true to realism, yet I found that if handled carefully, what she suggested really was good advice. There is Artistic Licence after all.

Spring Season of Painting

Starting with the poppy in the beginning of March, nearly all I painted that spring was flowers. Was I a floral painter? I was beginning to think that I was. Perhaps it was spring fever after so long a winter. I stumbled upon the Wet Canvas online floral tutorial at just the right time to develop my floral painting skills. I painted one after another, and with every painting I learned something new. The students of the tutorial had by this time formed something of a club. To stay within the mandate of the 'thread', our postings had to relate to the topic of macro florals. Here were fellow artists ready to offer helpful critiques and suggestions, something too good to miss. And so I contributed as many florals as I could paint, learning more of the painting process, and of Wet Canvas as well.

Thank you to all my macro floral painting pals for the many things that you taught me.

Brown Eyed Susan

White petals are interesting to paint, because in watercolor white paint is not used. What really is painted are the shadows that give the white object visual substance. Ah, but then what color are the shadows? That is the job of the artist to determine, and then perhaps, to embellish. This crisp white little flower had a lot of blue in it. The painting also has an extra feature: my fingerprint accidentally got on the lower right petal. That's one of the things about watercolor. There is not much you can do about that sort of thing. Oh well. Gives it character, maybe?