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........

The Winamac

My dad's love of tug boats can be traced back to one boat: the Winamac. It was owned and run by my dad's Uncle Baird and crewed in part by another uncle, Laddie. When my dad was very young, he went on family picnicing excursions on this boat, and was told by Baird that when he reached twelve he could come out alone and help the crew. His uncle kept his promise, and for most of his teen years, my dad was a frequent 'guest crewman' on the Winamac. His hopes of more permanent work with his uncle didn't materialize and my dad turned to accounting instead of an adventurous life at sea.

Recently, my dad found online a photo he had never seen before of the Winamac, taken just after she had been sold by Baird in about 1950. She was just as my dad remembered her - before being sold a few more times and finally sunk in the 1970s. Although the photo was rather blurry and faded, I knew I had to paint it. This was no ordinary tug after all, this was the Winamac.

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?

Camelia

With it's rich luscious colors, this camelia was just begging to be painted. It took many layers of glazed pigment to build up the flower's beautiful richness.

Oma's Orchids

Being from a low german Mennonite back ground, my mother-in-law is known as Oma to her grandchildren. Mennonites are famed as good farmers, and Art's mom certainly has a green thumb when it comes to her plants. The sun was shining through the nearly transparent blossoms of the orchid on the sunny Easter day we visited.

Instead of the usual matting and framing of watercolors, I tried a new technique. This painting was mounted on a three dimensional wooden panel, and protected with a spray varnish. I used opaque casein paint along the sides to complete the painting. This is a great option for buyers who might not otherwise consider a watercolor painting.

Yellow Lilies

Color is a great thing to play with, especially when the rules are learned. For example, blue is opposite yellow on the color wheel. I wanted these yellow lilies to jump off the page, and so by painting a very strong blue behind them, this effect can be acheived.

Blessing and Celebration

My friends Kyle and Beth Bultman in Rochester NY are classical violinists. They have taught music at the college level and run a summer string camp. Kyle has begun a network linking Christian artists and musicians. They also compose classical music. Beth's composition "Blessing and Celebration" was to be published in sheet music form, and I was asked to paint something to illustrate the publication. They loved the idea of my doing a floral, so as I listened to their excellent demo CD, I considered what I would paint.

The fuschias in this painting represent both of the concepts of the title. Viewed normally, the fuschias are pouring forth as blessings desending from Heaven. Some of the blessings are in full bloom, and some are as buds, yet to come. View the painting upside down, and now the flowers appear as swirling dancers with arms lifted in joyful praise.

Annie's Rose

My daughter Annie and step sister Val were moving to a new apartment. I offered to paint Annie a macro floral for the living room, and she gave me several photo reference options to choose from. I chose this rose, and cropped the photo to really get into the heart of this glowing flower. This time, for a challenge, I would go as big as I could. Watercolor paper comes in 22"x30" sheets, and this was how I painted it. It nearly covered my entire drafting table, and it took one whole day just to paint in the veins. It was while painting this rose that I added 'bigger brushes' to my shopping wish list.

Yellow Rose

There were two projects in CharM's macro tutorial, the second one being a sunflower. While others in the online class moved on to paint Char's richly colored version of the sunflower, I chose instead to paint this delicate rose. Part of the sunflower lesson was to discover how to darken yellow when in shadow. How do you make yellow darker anyway? Yellow cannot get very dark on its own, and adding black would only dull it. Artists' trick: add orange or green. Consider this the next time you look into the depths of a yellow rose.

The Macro Floral Tutorial

As I explored the WetCanvas! website, I discovered that someone simply called CharM was conducting an online tutorial on painting a close up of a peony in the format known as macro. I had done a bit of that already, and was eager to learn more. The class was well underway when I joined in, so I had some catching up to do. Through sharing questions, struggles and progresses, eventially about twelve artists from all over the place completed their own version of this peony. Thanks, Char.

Watercolor Canvas

There is a fairly new product available to watercolor painters which enables them to apply watercolor paint to canvas. Although expensive, this would be worth a try. I new technique was required, as the paint handled much differently on the poorly absorbing woven surface. I found that I required a looser style, and moved the work in progress from the drafting board to my rarely used easle. As with the pinecones, this poppy was an image from WetCanvas' Image Reference Library, or IRL. Many more would follow.

Starfish

Another reminder of my trip to BC. I especially liked experimenting with the wood grain.

Orville

We have two cats, and Orville is the one who will dissapear when company comes. Dozing in a sunbeam with a full stomach is his idea of bliss. This little painting was done with a limited pallete of only two colors.

Wrong Side of the Tracks

My friend Maureen and her large family had a beautiful fifteen acre farm along the Thompson River in BC. They accessed their land by crossing a major rail line. Eventually track expanded and the rail company forced my friend and their neighbours off their properties. They were paid for the land but not for their homes. It would be up to the home owners to sell and move their buildings, intact or for scrap; if left the rail company would tear them down. This was my friend's dream home, only about ten years old. I think I painted this as a way for me to mourn their loss.

Elaine

Elaine is my sister, and this was from a photo taken at a dimly lit restaurant. The lighting intrigued me, and I was curious to see how difficult it would be to paint an image that wasn't brightly lit. I did run into some difficulties, but leaned some good lessons. I'd like to frame it with an oval mat, to eliminate the awkward parts. This was painted around her birthday in January.