August

August  oil/canvas   16  x 20 x .5

floral displays include a profusion of hydrangeas....all sorts, all sizes and many colors.  The blooms are grand...some larger than a human head.  Nature is most mysterious.  

This canvas was toned with a light wash of red brown.  The painting was done from life with the blooms on a table before me.  When finished (is it ever?), I was overwhelmed with the darkness of it all and I just couldn't live with it.

My own sense of artistic "correctness" has evolved greatly over the years.  Given that, I decided to create some hydrangea stripes,, making the resultant shapes more interesting, I think.  

I am pleased.  FOR NOW. 

Gerbera

Gerbera   oil/canvas   14 x 11 x .5

 Painting flowers is not for sissies!  So much information...so much detail...and so many relationships!  Painting them leads down the path of itty-bittiness that is not in my nature.  Although they are definitely not my favorite subject, I do paint them from time to time in order to stretch my brushwork as well as my mind.  My goal of simplification of shapes and of brushwork is put to the test.  

This is my latest effort...a single large bloom, single stalk, single leaf, and single pot is all I could muster.  

There be it...until next time.  

Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle   oil/canvas   14 x 11

is a quiet beauty.  Our challenge in class was to pair an organic feature with an architectural element.  Although floral paintings are quite "nice", they do not convey much to me emotionally...I would sooner see the flowers themselves.  I do, however, see them as an excellent subject source for painters learning to hone their skills as they are so very complicated.  This lowly honeysuckle vine is on the mend after having been removed from its trough earlier in the season for patio repairs.  They really are nothing special to look at...their power is in their fragrance I think.  Pairing this vine with its trellis surround thrilled me design-wise but, oh, was it ever complicated!(many many relationships, the lighter values where subjects become mush, and the right amount of realism to convey the subject naturally)

I am surprised by how much I enjoy this small painting. 

Tulip Pair

Tulip Pair watercolor 12.5 x 9 I have always thought flowers to be among the most complex of subjects. Their forms are very complex, their forms quite articulated and the relationships....well....more than abundant. The poetic stature of tulips is so interesting to me, as their blooms rise above the leaves. I photographed two on my daily walk. Their colors were adapted to a better design and, I think, the relationship between the two was augmented. A bit of animism on my part. And...the simplicity which I have come to embrace is, I think, apparent. While flowers are not my favorite of subjects, I am pleased.

Sliding Back Into Watercolors

Red Bud   watercolor   13.5 x 10

is a daunting task.  This painting was one of the first watercolors of the season.  As I have little patience for perfectly arranged bouquets, I stuck some red bud branches into a jar, along with some vinca vine for interest. Floral paintings can easily become a story about the vase, which doesn't do much for me.  Simple stories do. The palette was limited.  Detail was kept to a minimum.  Both sides of the paper were lightly misted with water, as the transition from wet to dryer is one that both appeals and excites. The bottom background shape was painted with a light wash from the mixing well of the palette, combining all of the previously used colors to create a harmonic neutral.  And, of course, brown (a reddish tone) in the top background.  I have found that I like to offset the sweet floral hues with an earthy brown which, for me, keeps the floral paintings from reading too sweetly.

After years and years of painting both from life, and from reference photos out of necessity, I have found that I much prefer the imperfect boldness that occurs when I paint from life. 

I am still trying to define what, for me, makes a good painting.  It is always so elusive.

I am ready to  move one.

Switching Gears

Fistful   watercolor   6 x 9

from oils to watercolors.  Where I live, in Ohio, the year is divided into four distinct seasons...weather-wise, food-wise, and attitude.  This I love.  Because my painting loves are equally divided between oils and watercolors, I switch up mediums seasonally.  I have tried to do both simultaneously and it just doesn't work....for me.  Different feels, different clean ups, different approaches.  Too confusing.

Enter Spring.....I decided to do just a couple of small ditties to whet my watercolor appetite and to rid myself of the fear of the white paper.  No formal set-ups....just a fistful of blooms from our yard.  I was so happy to be painting this work and opposed the transparent pigments of the blooms with a more opaque handling of the background....just chalky like I like it.  Fistful. 

Bouquet Without Stems

Bouquet Without Stems   oil/canvas   12 x 12 x 1.5

was not a planned project.  Sometime in March, I started seeing lots of primrose plants in the stores.  Primroses are on my list of "poorly painted subjects from the past" that, eventually, I have plans to attempt again....along with swans and pumpkins.  And so, I laid a plan.  On the way to class, I stopped to pick up a primrose plant...three stores later, I was still being told that they had all died.  And so I ended up with one of those fairly nondescript bouquets that is a mix of lovely separates with no particular theme.  Attempts to put this bunch in any vase at the art center created a leaning, skinny bouquet with no rhythm.    Considering all of my options, I chose to paint each of the kinds separately on a flat two-dimensional, tile-like plane.

No stems.

Pump up the Color!

Mexican Sunflowers   watercolor   13 x 10

Some would deem watercolor to be the perfect medium for floral work.  I agree that that can be true.  However, my tastes run to the richer, the meatier, the weightier.....too much lightness, for me, can not be taken seriously.  These particular flowers are Mexican sunflowers.  The seeds were sewn indoors, then later transplanted to the garden.  Late summer.....these blooms create a trellis-like entangling, about 6 feet in height.  The hummingbirds love them.  We love them.  The color is spectacular.....the most fluorescent hue imaginable!

Fluorescent?  Lucky me.  Last birthday I received some watercolor pans from Case for Making, a San Francisco-based storefront that carries handmade pigments.  The ones used here (as well as several other autumn projects):  fluorescent orange light and fluorescent flame red. 

In the working of this painting, the entangling of the blooms got to be too much, just too tedious.  That is when I used a blue-tinted gouache to separate the top.  This break almost reads as sky,  and the design benefits greatly. 

Color me fluorescently happy.

Coneflowers

Coneflowers   12 x 4 x 1.5

was intended as small between-the-lines painting...nothing serious, small in size....just an exercise.  Flowers are the perfect vehicle for such a work.  Without the seriousness of a larger or more contemplative work, I feel free to explore and try out new techniques.

In this case, this very small canvas was toned with what I would call "navy blue", a neutralized dark blue that was probably mixed with French ultramarine and burnt sienna.  The background leaves and pods are closer in value to the toned ground so they fade to the background.  The pink leaves were intentionally scraped and pulled back to allow that blue toned ground to become a major player. 

I am pleased. 

Bunch

Bunch   watercolor   16.75 x 9.5

I believe that flowers are possibly the most difficult subject for me to paint...so complex...so many relationships!  For that reason, I prefer to paint them in a bunch, along with their wild natures, as opposed to the restraints of a vase or mise-en scene setting that further dilutes their energy.

This bunch was plucked from our yard.  I am basically happy with the work, but, in retrospect, wish that I had included some other varieties. 

There is always next spring.

Opinions

Opinions   watercolor   12 x 9

While at the art center where I teach, I was struck by the simple beauty of some aluminum cans that were stacked up in the kitchen.  (The art center uses these for the plastic utensils) These cans, along with many of the things we use, are manufactured for one use, then recycled....into other ones, I hope.  I felt that one of these cans would make a perfect receptacle for a couple of very full valentine roses.  These two blooms are both so lovely and so complex, yet each calls for its own space.  Much like opinions, I think.  Individual relationships are beautiful and, yes, complex, and the loving ones allow for differing opinions and much discourse.

My husband and I are in the process of a kitchen makeover.  We love each other beyond measure.  But our opinions on so many small details differ:  on the materials to be used, on the placement of components, and, yes, on the cupboard handles as well.

What better metaphor for a home improvement?

Pink Tulips

Pink Tulips   watercolor on Khadi   13 x 13

underwent quite a journey in its making.  My original idea was to keep all values lighter with the wish that the overall atmosphere would be one of light.  However, I DID NOT HAVE TIME TO DO A DRAWING....BIG MISTAKE.  The tulips were complete and played with strokes of blue violet and an off-white-warm.  The painting was matted and framed.  As I passed by the work over the weekend, I felt the repeated strong urge to make the work mine, to utilize the strong value interludes that make a work more powerful and more visible from a distance.  In addition, I felt that the work was just too greeting-card-like...with a lightness and airiness that made it seem too fluff.  So, the background was washed down and the idea of a raisin and mahogany-colored background seemed to lead the way.  I began a series of thin washes over the next couple of days, each layer leading the way to the color that was in my head...more warm, more brown, more pink, etc. Finally, the implication of a vase shape was pulled down with my sponge. 

The end result is a far cry from my original idea....a bit more formal than my usual, but more becoming, I think, to the lush pink tulips.  I had been wanting to try this layering of washes for years.  This painting provided the opportunity to give it a try.  This is a technique used by watercolor artist Catherine Anderson whose work I explored many years ago. Nothing ventured.  Nothing gained.

Pink Hyacinths

Pink Hyacinths      Watercolor   11 x 14

...lacy bell-shaped blossoms atop thick and leek-like stems...quite the study of opposites.  Slow and steady to paint.  I think that I have finally learned how to suggest those small blossoms by generalization, for the most part, and a bit of detail on the small bell-shapes closest to the viewer. 

I have come to realize that reality and design in painting are often at odds with each other, and yet both have a world to offer.  And, again, as always, the recipe, the balance, between the two must be determined by each individual artist.  I am happiest when design rules...the place where reality becomes a supporting actor.  A growth spurt...another level of perception. 

I am pleased.

Painting Flowers is the test...

Daisy Tumble   watercolor   7.5 x 9.5

...the ultimate test, for me, in the understanding of bending, twirling and complex forms.  Over the years, I have come to discover what I DO NOT like in floral works:  vases of all kinds (they steal the power); symmetry; perfection; and wall to wall paint.  Therefore, I have come to prefer vignettes, spontaneity, pathways of light (mostly) and pathways of dark, kept to a minimum.  While I am a lover of neutrals, I have to work hard to keep them at bay, so that the mood of the work remains sensual and light...a tall order.  I like complete petals as well as some that remain nondescript.  I like a bit of a hard line somewhere in the work that opposes the organic nature of the blooms.  I am happy with this one.  While I did come in for a second pass and some definition, I do think that I stopped in time.  I never enjoy it when the watercolor police come knocking at my door for having taken a work too far into reality and, as a result, too far removed from imagination.

Window Seat

Window Seat   watercolor   13 x 10

is a painting of an apple blossom geranium, a sprig of which was given to me by a friend not a year ago.  The plant amazes me and delights my soul daily.  Painting flowers is a bugaboo for me...I don't really enjoy floral works, but feel that their complexity is a great learning and re-learning experience...now and then.  In this case, the "reality" of the subject (the plant next to a southern-exposure window) was competing with my need for abstraction, and to diminish the importance of the support and the background.  Woe is me.  I did my best to meld the two stories.  It was also an extreme temptation to over-describe the leaves, when most were being burnt out by the sun's late winter light. 

I gave it my best shot.  Will see how I feel about it in another year or so....while I anticipate the growth of this organic beauty.

African Daisies

African Daisies   oil on canvas   5.5 x 12 x 1.5

are the subject of this small painting.  Although flowers are not my usual subject matter, I do appreciate all they have to offer in terms of learning:  complexity, rhythm, intense as well as subtle hues, and those darned ellipses!  Most of my work requires much contemplation, much deliberation, and many changes.  These small florals offer a bit of a break in the seriousness...an opportunity to paint what is before me.  This arrangement is a small cropping from a large plant on our patio.  I also enjoyed a variance in the usual format.  My goal was to allow patterns of both darks and lights to weave through the work in a rhythmic way.  I am pleased...for now.  (Pleasure in painting, I'm afraid, is fleeting)

Pensees

Pensees   watercolor   10 x 6

Painting flowers is not for the timid.  I have often felt that they are the most difficult subject on the face of the earth.  Complexity and detail abound.  It has literally taken me years to understand (from time to time) how to take in all of this complexity and reduce it to a more understandable version of what is before me.  Pansies are tender and bendable.  They love cool and moisture.  Thus is the challenge for a painter like me who loves the bold and sculptural.  In earlier watercolor days, I like to ignore its boundaries and press it into an all-encompassing duty....making a watercolor painting that would stand up to the strength of a pastel, an oil.  But that was ignoring its finest quality which is also its limitation...the quiet, the sublime, the delicately layered.  This painting is small and achieves just what I had hoped...the nature of these tender flowers.

Pensees is a French word for thoughts...and for pansies.

Nosegay

Nosegay   watercolor   8 x 8

Our class assignment was an arrangement of Spring flowers, harbinger of the warm and sunny weather on the horizon.  (Little did I know that winter would be hanging around for a few more weeks)  I picked up a dear little nosegay bouquet from Heinen's.  My first attempt was too bold, too aggressive...not appropriate for this tender subject matter.  The background blue was far too strong and overpowered the bouquet. As was the solidly painted orange wrapping paper.   Another attempt in my studio yielded a more satisfactory result.  Each bloom was painted separately, always a challenge for me.  The "destroy" passages were kept to a minimum and consisted mostly of some broad watery strokes designed to pull the paint outside of the bouquet and simply imply the orange paper that held it altogether.  I am more satisfied with the second attempt.  I think that a preparatory drawing would have saved the extra effort.  Note to myself:  when the subject is small and tender, the process must follow suit.  The soft notes are as important as the loud ones.

I am not a painter of flowers...but....

Knock Out   oil/canvas   12 x 9 x 1.5

every summer I manage to complete a couple of florals.  I don't believe that any subject matter is quite as complex...they teach the artist about convex/concave; slight variations on the warm/cool temperature gauge; and prioritization supreme.  One of the reasons why florals do not call to me is indeed those very complex forms....with that kind of detail, things must be rendered pretty true-to-life in order to be understandable.  Painting them is an exercise that stretches me and takes me out of my comfort zone.  My preference for larger simpler forms allows for a more creative and expressive use of paint.  OK.  My own like-to-dislike scale of bouquets  would be:  random bouquet without container laying on a surface; followed by monochromatic simple blooms in a clear simple vase.  The scenarios continue downhill from here:  multi-colored bouquets; patterned vases that demand attention; and classical bouquets that appear to have been sprayed with hair spray.  That being said, this bouquet of knockout roses caught my eye.  Knockouts are a recent addition to the rose family....they are easy to grow, disease and deer resistant; heat tolerant; and have a generous bloom cycle.  AND THEY HAVE SIMPLE BLOOMS.

"Knockout" was painted a couple of weeks ago, after my exposure to these glorious blooms.  Will I grow them?  Probably not.  Will I paint them?  Just did.

Flowers are cheerful.  That plop of color would be welcome on any wall.

A painting is never finished....

Girls Named Susan   oil/canvas   8 x 8

  It simply stops in interesting places.
                                                         Phil Gardner

I know artists on both ends of this spectrum....those whose goal is a signature and a frame, being more stimulated by the product than the process ; as well as those who add a brush stroke now and again for decades.....really.  I guess I am somewhere in the middle.  I really like to keep a painting leaning against my studio wall for a while, usually upside-down, being somewhat certain that I have resolved most major issues.  The release of the work just happens....either sooner or later.  That doesn't seem to matter.  It is deeply disconcerting to find awkward passages in those works that have "passed over".  Usually, for me, it happens more often in small works, those little paintings that I would like to think are so casual that they fill in the gaps; those little paintings that are taken a bit less seriously; those that I haven't pondered about in excess.  And yet, "Girls Named Susan" hung on my studio wall for less than a week when I realized that it could me made stronger and more exciting by adding some violet passages.  I succumbed.  Removed from the frame, it was.  Back on the easel.  I am happier.

I think it is a mistake to constantly correct paintings....that goes nowhere.  The best tack for me is to internalize the lesson learned and apply it to future works.  I am, at this point, wise enough to understand that perfectionism is rarely the solution for me.  I adore the happy accidents along the way that provide a searching, a discovery.  And so.................I really do try to honor the release of a work into completion.

Almost always.  Never say never.