THE WHITE PETUNIA

This is a very large painting 36"X24". It is not yet totally done. Still needs a few edge corrections and varnishing. Some of the centers could be developed more. For this painting I used light molding paste and built up the flowers in the areas of light. I think glazed the flowers with thinned paint. I used mostly water for the glazing to keep the flowers soft.

While I was building the flowers, I tried to replicate all the texture that I saw closeup in the flower, both in real life and in the enlarged photo.

My working process for these large flowers is to digitally photograph the flower and then working with it in the crop mode of Picasa, I design the composition of the actual flowers I have photographed. My camera is 8 mp, so the photos are still quite detailed when they are blown up. Once a composition comes to life for me I print it out 8.5"X11.

I then free hand draw the composition on the canvas with either charcoal or pencil, depending on the amount of detail that I want in the original drawing.

The next step is to start building the flowers. I usually use more molding paste on the lighter colors of the flowers. I keep the molding paste white at this point. This process takes several days due to the drying time. I am experimenting in the darker flowers of mixing the values that I want from the beginning. Then glazing over that to gain more depth.

So far I really enjoy this type of painting in a studio environment. This spring and fall I have been painting Plein Air for the most part and using a less structured technique.

Pastel Oscar Scherer State Park, Fl.

I have been taking a course with Sally Christiansen from the Venice Art Center this spring for pastel plein aire painting. This is the first pastel that I have done in 40 years. I have to say that I am very please. I dragged out this great set of pastels that I had been given in the 60's when I was doing figure studies in pastels. The pastels still worked and I was excited using them.

I had originally thought that I would take the class just to have a group to paint outside with and inspire myself to do it. There is something about paying money for a class that motivates you to show up, rather than just trying to do it on your own. I painted in the fall class and enjoyed it. The other students in the class encouraged me to do a pastel to get the most out of the class and the instructor who is very good. So here it is and I must say that I am pleased.

I will be going about tomorrow to do the next one, so hopefully this was not just beginners luck so to speak. Wish me luck.

Final picture of the Mountain Brook

I finally have been able to post the final rendition of the Mountain Brook. It was a very interesting painting to paint, and trying to get the wet look of the rocks and the rocks under the water at the top right of the painting. I used a lot of glazing techniques to obtain the look that I wanted and am very excited about painting some other brook scenes when I go back to Colorado this summer. There are so much inspiration and peace painting at a mountain brooks, I look forward to more.

Hope everyone enjoyed the exercies and I am sorry it that it took so long to post the final results. Hopefully the next time I will be more diligent.

Another drawing from this week

This is a drawing of a landmark in Nederland, Co. Snyder's Garage. It is in the downtown area on 1st street. I am doing a series of drawings and small watercolors for postcards and note cards for my daughter to sell in her Hair Salon, untain Rose Hair Care. I sent a batch out last week of

various small watercolors that I did over the years while visiting her and they have been very well received.

Nederland is at 8200 ft in the Rocky Mountains west of Boulder. It is a small mining town that is transforming into a communting area for Boulder. My daughter found it while visiting a friend in Colorado about ten years ago and fell in love. She moved there and now has her own business , the only hair salon for miles. This summer I hope to build a building for her salon and a studio for the summer months for me. It is another very interesting and time consuming project.

Some drawings

Thought I better post something so you would know all is

well.

I do have a sinus infection, so have not felt like standing and painting, so decided to do a few drawins. This is the roots of a Banyon Tree in downtown Venice, Fl. These trees were given to the town when it was first incorporated in the 1920's by Edison when he was invited here. The roots are very interesting and I was down there the other day, so took a few pictures and then did this drawing of the roots. Since Georgia O'Keeffe is my muse, she also did Banyon Trees when she visited Bermuda. I was there many years ago and remember the trees, but was not into painting at the time, so took this opportunity here in Venice to take some pictures.

Canvas view of The Brook

I took this from the left side of the painting. For this painting I chose one of the 2 1/2" deep 3D canvases, which I got from ASW Express on the net. I enjoy working with the deep canvas, as it does not need a frame and gives a greater depth to landscapes.

Last Session of the First day

When all was said and done, I just could not leave the studio until I had the canvas covered. It was so much fun. I know that a lot of the water will have to be redone, as I just could not stop working with the paint.

As in most of my paintings, I do paint the whole painting several times to refine it. I am sure that the composition is fine at this point and that I will just have to refine the shapes and the water.

This is a close up of a mountain brook in Nederland, Colorado. I will be building a studio up in the mountains in Nederland, to use in the summer months. I get many ideas from up there and enjoy the people.

Third Stage

After the underpainting had dried, about a hour or less, I still had some time in my painting session today to start working with the Atelier Interactive. I used Green Black, Brunt Sienna, Yellow Orchre, Carbon Black, Orange, Titanium White.

I have to say that this paint handles like nothing else I have ever used. It has some of the feeling of oil, but not the draw backs of getting muddy with over use. It blends well, without the disadvantage of turpentine or getting oil paint on your hands. I do a lot of blending with my fingers, so this is really great tha I do not have to worry about getting it off.

I was going to stop here, as it was getting late and I was getting tired, but as you will see from the next post, I decided to continue. I just could not stop seeing what would happen next with the paint. It seems to be able to read what I want to do and achieve it with little to no effort. What a joy.

Next stage

As I have shown you before, I usually lay in the darks first. The background will be very dark with some of the underpainting showing through. The rocks are dark, and I have concentrated on the shadow side of the rock.

In reading some of the literature from Atelier Chroma Interactive, they suggest using some of your existing paints for the underpainting. So I used Old Holland Acrylics for this stage. The colors are Indiago, Caput Mortuum Violet (Mars), and Daniel Smith Indanthrone Blue. These are all very dark colors. I do not like to use Black at this time, as it does not have the depth of color that other colors do.

The Brook, second stage

At this stage, I drew over the pencil lines that could barely be seen. I used charcoal, as it would be absorbed into the paint. I am concentrating on shapes and placement at this point. The water will be coming down from the upper left and going through the center to pool at the bottom right

The Making of a Painting, The Brook

I this painting I will be starting with an underpainting of Old Holland Acrylic Naphtol-Vermillon. For this I have mixed the pigment with approximately 1/2 water to make it thinner. You may be able to see that the drawing can be seen under the paint. It does show up more in person.

This underpainting will unify the top painting and give it a glow that can not be duplicated. The scene is rather dark and I want to get the feeling of light on the water.

Slight delay

As you can see there has been a resting period for this painting. Some times I let a painting rest when I am not sure exactly what I am going to do next. Even though I have a pretty good idea where I am going with this painting, for lots of reasons, I have not painting on it for some time.

A resting period of sorts. I have started two new paintings. These are done in a different way than the last ones of the flowers.

The next post will be the start of the babbling brook from Colorado.

Several hours later

After trial and error I really like the state that I left this in for the end of the day. Putting in the center of the petunias really helped. I think that I have to now define and refine the petals in the foreground at the bottom. Some of the petals in the middle are done. Also will have to make a determination on the very dark purple petals in the middle ground. Will probably make that determination closer to the end of the next session.

Another painting session over the weekend

Went to work on this after a rest of a day and a half and decided that what I had left was not a cohesive unit for the pink/purple petunias. Way too disjointed and confusing. So set out to at least get them all the same color. I really believe that this helped a lot.

Last try of the day

I did not like to stop today with the red petunia so prominent. So decided to work on the upper right corner and the red petunia to soften it a bit so that it will take it's place.

Tomorrow I will probably start early as I am very excited about painting the pink petunias. I now know pretty much what the shape of the petals are and the relative values. Although I still do not like the color.

I looked through my colors and found some new colors I order from New Holland. A brand of acrylics that I started using this summer and liked. I had been trying to fill out my palette when I discovered the Atelier Interactive. I did find in the rose that if I used the Titanium white with a color the paint kept many of the characteristics of the Interactive. Have not checked with the manufacturer if you can mix the brands, but so far so good.

Will post more tomorrow as I develop the pink petunias. It is so much fun.

Yet another session

Had a long day today in the studio. Went to the beach for lunch and when I got back decided to finish the pinks and get the canvas covered. I have been told that at this point I get very impatient with the painting as this is not the fun part for me, but I know that the fun part is coming, so I just plug along until I get there.

I am still not happy with the pinks that I have mixed. I have a limited palette of reds, two, Napthal and Crimson and a purple came today, so that helped.

But I achieved the objective for the day of covering the canvas. So I am happy.

Continuation of first session

I am starting the pink petunias, and at this point I feel lost in the petunia bed. I also have not found the correct pink, but will continue with the palette that I have.

A shipment came from Dick Blick with a great started set of Chroma Atelier Interactive Acrylics and medium. It is a great starter set if you want to try many of the colors and some of their mediums.

I have decided to use several palettes from this painting to keep the colors clean. I have three or four Masterson palettes, but prefer the smaller ones for individual colors and development of values. At this point, I have one set up for greens and another for the pinks.

This use of several palettes I learned from researching Georgia O'Keeffe who used a large glass palette with her oils, but only painting one color at a time and cleaned the palette and the brushes before painting the next color. My modern adaptation of this is to use the small Masterson palettes with different colors in each one. I do clean my brushes often.

Second phase

Here I am experimenting with having the petunia the farthest away from the view as red. This is a challenge as red is usually a warm color that will jump forward in a painting and usually does best in the forground. Here the farthest flower will be red and the ones in the foreground are going to be pink.

Although at this point I am wondering why I do not do the petunias in white and pink. But that is not where I originally wanted to go, so if my original idea does not work out I can always go back.

First Session covering the background

At this stage I am only covering the background with values that I think will work in the finished painting. I am also evaluating the shape of the positive images of the petunias. In all I like the composition and has a rhythm that I feel flows well.

Beginning of a petunia painting

I start a new painting by drawing directly on the canvas with a NO2 pencil. I do as much detail as I need to layout the painting in the first session to cover the canvas. My belief is that you do not have a painting until the canvas is covered.

Finished Painting

Finished at Last

Finally finished the painting in several short sessions. I spoke with a representative of Chroma Atelier Interactive and she gave me some ideas of different ways to handle the paint to get the effects of the petals that I wanted. I am very happy with the results.

This paint is some of the best paint I have ever used including oil and other brands of acrylics. I have tried most of the brands of acrylic on the market today, so feel I have a good handle on the good and bad points of most of the other brands for the way that I paint.

Anyway, I am very pleased and hope that you will let me know how you feel.

I am putting a slideshow of the photos I took of the painting as it was being created. This will be interesting to see it morph

Still another session

Had an opportunity to paint for several hours on this painting this afternoon. I worked mostly on the flower in the upper right corner, and still more"lost in a rose", the center of the large rose. I am trying to define the shape of the petal and then to blend and model within the petal. I had to make quite a few changes to the outside of the smaller rose. Also many changes within the center of the larger rose. Sounds like same old, same old, but that is the nuts and bolts of painting. Always going over the same old ground until it is refined to one's liking. Sometimes you lose it, other times it gets better. I may have had some of both today.

I am getting anxious to apply the first layer of gel, which will bring many of the values together and make it a more cohesive painting. It will have at least three layers of gel and then a final coat of spray varnish for protection.

Another Session

I had a large block of time to work today before my foot gave out, or something else happened to interfer.

As most artists know, life gets in the way of painting most days, but today I did not let it.

I was able to get lost in a rose for one more time. I repainted the bud to develop more paint quality. From there I went to the inside of the large rose and worked on developing and refining the petals. Most of it was blending and seeing how this Atelier Interactive blended. One of the more interesting aspects of this paint is that you can spray it with a watercolor spray bottle and keep it workable for as long as you need it. It can also be reactivated within a short period of time if it should dry. I used only water for the spray.

This technique allows me to get the fine blending in the petals. I also worked on the shapes and edges within the center of the flower, both hard and soft edges as they turn over on themselves.

Tomorrow I hope to get to the middle flower and revise the outside edges and the shape. It has become too large in proportion to the large flower. Even though I have not painted on it since the beginning, as the large flower developed it changed the relationship of the two.

Also softened some of the edges of the leaves in the background as there were too hard and were detracting from the flowers. Softening edges allows the shapes to recede into the background and thereby emphasis the subject of the painting.

This is the final session on Sunday. I painted several times for short periods, as I have something wrong with my heal and I stand to paint, so had to limit sessions by my pain threshold.

The changes now are getting more subtle, but I feel that the three dimensional qualities are really coming forth. Although I only worked on the center of the rose, developing the petals and the modeling, and also one large petal, the whole painting seems to be changing. It just proves that all things are relative.

The changes from here on will be even more subtle, so I do not know if I will publish after each session. But will as it changes from day to day.

Fourth Painting Session

This session I decided in order to get more depth, the painting needed to have more dark in the background in particular the upper right corner. So I repainted many of the dark areas and expanded them. This will add more depth to the entire picture.

After that, it became obvious that the next step was to keep working on the petals. I am still in the experimental stage, but so far the blending has been awesome. I love the way I am able to get the edges that I want. The new brushes that came with the introductory set although not the best, or still great.

Third Painting Session

This time I worked mostly in the center of the rose. I felt like I was lost in a rose. It was very confusing and I must say it took a lot of time to keep track of where I was. The canvas is 24 X 30, although it feels a lot bigger. I do love these new paints. I am able to get the feel of the petals and can blead very well. They stay wet if you spray with a watercolor atomizer.

Online Information for Atelier Interactive Acrylic

Not much painting today, but did find a great website for Atelier Interactive Acrylic paint, This is a great source for information on the newest acrylic paint. I am having a great time with the starter set and it is accomplishing the type of edges and the glow that I had envisioned. I have used Golden and Old Holland, and in both have felt that I was always fighting the medium. Here I feel that the paint, the brush and me are one, a great feeling. This is the first time that I can remember that I felt in control of almost all aspects of the painting.

This is a large painting, so must be done in various sittings. I will post another day's painting tomorrow, as I was able to work for about a half an hour today and will photographic tomorrow.

Also went to an opening today at the Venice Art Center and saw a new way to display paintings. The artist has taken one of the digital photo frames and was showing a painting slide by slide as it was painted. I think that I will try to do that with this painting when it is finished. It is amazing the things that happen to a painting on its way to a finished piece. A metamorphosis of sorts.

More tomorrow.

Second Day of Painting

This is the result of the second day of painting. As you can see I decided to make the bud facing downward. I was not able to cover the entire canvas, as I usually do as I ran out of light and energy. It is a rather large canvas, so just a bit more than I had time. I am also using a new acrylic paint for me Atelier Interactive Artists' Acrylic. I saw a real deal for it at ASW, got two sets of paint and a lot of brushes for around $40. It sold out quickly and I had to wait about a month for a second shipment, but so far I really like them.

The literature that came with it indicates that the paint does not dry with a skin, but works with the artists. It takes 10-15 minutes to dry. It does have to be kept re hydrated by spraying with water, if you want to blend and rework and area. I did find that it was easier to get the edges that I wanted and by spraying I could also get blending, which has been difficult with other brands of paint. I usually use Golden, but recently switched to Old Holland, as I like the consistency better, and also the skin that is formed.

I will let you know what happens on the third day of painting. Which will be wet over dry. I do know that the surface looks different than with other paints. There has been little to no color change. Which is good.

First day of painting

This is the finish of the first day. As you can see the canvas is large 30X32 I believe. I chose to paint some tone of green for the background leaves so that I could see the positive spaces left. I decided that I did not like the change that I made from the photo. In the photo the bud is upsidedown. I turned it up, but decided that I will name the painting "YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW" The bud beinging tomorrow. And since it was growing down, I decided that that made me think more about what tomorrow will hold. The large shape will be today and the midium flower will be yesterday. This painting is for the WCA Celebration of Love show in February. My idea is to plan it after the 3 stone diamond rings that DeBeers advertise for love. We will see. More tomorrow when I paint the second day.

Roses for a Painting

These pictures will be used to create yet another picture for a show the end of January in Sarasota. As I proceed with the painting I will post other photos that I might use and show you were I am at each stage of the painting. This picture and the one below I took at Disney last year at the Christmas show. Our family met there for the opening show of Mickey and his gang for the lighting of the tree. Disney is one of the great places to photograph flowers as they have special gardens and gardeners. It is one of my favorite places for flowers and this year I hope to get to their annual flower show.
I believe that I will use the composition of the yellow roses and incorporate the pink rose for the large rose. Which in the first picture is yellow and pink. At this point I see the bud staying the same colors and the yellow rose in the background probably staying yellow, but who knows
This is a photo of a photo that I saw in the window of a gallery in Taos, NM I liked the idea of the large rose and the placement on the canvas. The quality is not good, but gives one an inspiration for another painting.