Week #10 - In Celebration of Flowers

This week, we will be focusing on flowers. (There are so many around right now!) Take a look at these flowers by Emil Nolde. They do not depict every detail of the flowers. They are loose, and rich in color, but they still hold onto the quality of flowers, in fact, the looseness seems to enhance the feeling and expressiveness of the flowers.

Find some flowers of your choice and isolate one or two. Really focus in and look at the structure of the flower, how are the petals arranged? Can you see the center? How can you show the depth of the center, (if you can see the center), without using black or allowing your colors to get dull. Remember the idea of using complimentary colors for shadows. This is a great time to use that concept. Compose your painting so that the flowers are large on your page. You might not be able to fit more than the flowers. Some of the flowers might not completely fit onto the page either. That’s fine. This time the flowers are the main star of your paintings. Have fun! I can’t wait to see what you paint or draw!

 

 

 

Check out artist Janet Filemyr's backyard plein-air geranium painting.

You can feel the light in the warm green leaves...

Also, check out the lovely bouquet of geraniums. They look so lush!

Artist Virgina Naughton's close-up titled: 'Last of the Tulips'  

"I completed a painting that I started a few weeks ago when my tulips were on their way out.
But I am trying for Nolde simplification on some other paintings while it's still spring"

We're looking forward to seeing her next post!

This Spring has been particularly lovely with the blue skies and abundant flowers.
Inspiration is all around us. Stay safe, stay well, stay creative.

 

 

  

Joan Rappaport's watercolors are full of spring beauty. Lovely play of wet-on-wet washes in the background of this last one with the stronger pigmented flowers in front!

 

 

 Miriam Rankin created these two lovely pieces. The top on is an oil painting the bottom one is a pastel drawing. Both celebrate the vibrance of these tulips!