Field of Flowers

Up the coast a way is a town known for its flower farms – a big industry locally.  The climate is varied, so a lot of different flowers may be grown, both for florists as well as seed.  Agriculture isn’t all cows and Brussel sprouts!

This was a fun study – I did a lot of lines as a practice exercise (I forget about lines because I have color to use – in ink painting it is so much about lines) and decided to focus on lines as the raison d’être for the painting.  Wet lines, dry-brush lines, wash and lines, wet on dry, dry on wet, etc.  Dots, too.

 

99. Carnations & Chamomile

The other day at the store I picked up small, individual bouquets of chamomile and red carnations (probably really dianthus, a member of the same flower group).  The leaves of each are vastly different, with the chamomile more “leafy” and the carnation’s longer and pointy.  I took my time with this painting this morning – took a photograph of the flowers – and studied things a bit before diving in.  I didn’t do a value study, but tried to determine value from the photo.

I began with an overall wash for most of the areas with color – greens, reds, and yellow dots.  From there, negative painting and deepening colors in an attempt to show depth.  Not quite there – a bit too tight for my tastes – but I do feel it was a moderately successful study.  Waiting between the washes was a bit trying on my patience!

Sunday Morning

This morning I had one goal in mind:  paint.  With a gloomy sky here on the California coast, the damp and cold penetrate you to the bone.  Once it leaves, it’s a great big sunny day ahead!  So, while waiting for the fog to dissipate, I took a few pictures of a bouquet I put together of chamomile flowers and small, red carnations in a rectangular glass base.  I didn’t do a value study because I wanted to look at the colors – light, dark, and so on – to see what I could produce.

I penciled in the basic drawing, took some notes of the colors and mixed this and that, testing them on a scrap of paper.  Looking at the vase, I saw the different shades of color through the glass with water and without water, as well as the water line and edges of the vase.  Chamomile leaves are multi-lobed and floppy; carnation leaves are rather spiky.  Chamomile flowers are happy, daisy-like flowers, and quite small.  Carnations are upright.  Both are really lovely!

Process was like my last two flower paintings – start with the large areas of color and move into details.  Overall, it worked here, until I started getting into the hodge-podge of leaves.  I think I should have simplified their masses of color, but I didn’t.  I like the negative painting I accomplished for the chamomile flowers, as well as the edges along the bouquet where the white flowers have to merge into something.  The carnations were far more difficult than I thought, and once more, I made something more complicated and tight than I would like to see as “my” style.

Nonetheless, I feel that this painting is a moderate success.  I was patient and let the washes dry, working from lighter to more dark, thinking about white space and negative painting.  And I still have a bouquet of flowers to enjoy!

Time Rolling By

I don’t know if you experience this, but it seems to be a common theme.  Once you know that you have vacation ahead, you realize just how tired you are!  Tired of work, tired of the people you work with, and just plain tired!  With retirement coming up, I am even more frustrated by my job and its hours, some of the silly things that occur.  I am also tired of some of the people and looking forward to not being around them.  That’s life, and change is good, as are the constants in daily life.  Look for your blessings every day – I really believe this, and try to do it, without losing perspective, either.

Last weekend 11 trees were trimmed and pruned; 5 were completely removed.  For the first time in years, the back half of the house has daylight, not artificial, as a main light source.  I bought a plant to see how it will do, between the dogs and the poor soil.  (Poor plant!)  It’s a penstemon, which is drought-tolerant.  It’s a lovely, cheerful flower.  I put it under the dogs’ noses to let them smell it, and then told them “bad”.  Let’s see how it survives!

In addition to dealing with tree removal and pruning, I have been in a real funk about my painting.  After a disastrous series of watercolors, I just put everything aside for about a week.  Still, I did other things, like go for walks and continue to recover from the house renovation by moving things here and there and unpacking more boxes.  All this upheaval!  It’s a slow process, but it’s getting done.  Of course, there are still a million other things I could delude myself into doing as “necessary” – which really are, but not vital to my existence!

So, after a week of blithering and dithering and feeling like a lost soul, I sat down, once more, in the studio.  I took out a large palette of colors (the key to which is still missing), and decided to do some flowers in vases.  I like flowers, so it seemed a perfect subject.  I worked in the main color areas first – after doing a line drawing, but no value study (a habit I need to establish) – top to bottom.  After that, I looked some more.  And some more.  Then I began to add details, all the while working very hard to think ahead and in the present at the same time.  I produced two paintings I liked.

And finally, I had a Friday afternoon.  Watercolor class or just do what I wanted?  I chose the latter.  Doing what I wanted was more interesting and more challenging and more needed than anything else.  Into the car, down to an art store, down to the nursery, and finally the bookstore.  I bought 4 paint brushes, 1 penstemon, 2 watercolor magazines and 3 books.  I drank a cup of coffee.  Finally, some time of my own, some time to think, and some time to recover from this sense of ennui that has been my companion for many days.  Yay!