Thursday, July 17, 2008

May Bouquet














This is another of the paintings I started in the Janet Walsh workshop in May. It was started without drawing. I just started painting in the flowers as I saw them, starting from the top and letting the paint run downward, for the first wash. I did draw in a few of the azaleas after the first wash dried, so that I could paint in the deeper shadows, and I drew the bowl in after the flowers were done. I think I am going to leave the background white on this one.

11x15 on Arches cold press

7 comments:

laura said...

Beautiful! I have tried painting flowers without drawing first, and it seems to yield good results--it certainly did here. The way the leaves are bunched together where the stems go into the vase is especially "convincing."

Joan said...

Mickey - This came out really well!! I love the lilacs against the pinks. Nice job on the bowl too.

Watercolors by Susan Roper said...

Michelle,

This is just lovely! I think working "without a net" on the first wash got you a more spontaneous fall of flowers and your negative painting techniques finished those so well. The glass is convincing and I like the freshness of the white background showing through the bowl. Your florals are always just so good!

Michelle Himes said...

Thanks, Laura. I'm glad that you thought the vase was convincing. That's the part I had the most trouble with.

Joan, looking at it now (a few months later), I like the lilacs against the pinks too, but after a week of painting pink and purple flowers I didn't want to look at those colors anymore.

Thanks, Susan, it was hard for me who normally paints flowers from photos to do them from life "without a net". But it's actually easier to paint a complicated bouquet of flowers without drawing - because you can't get too caught up in the details.

Anonymous said...

Hi Michelle,
Your postings of flowers are lovely. I like your shapes and how you work the positive and negative shapes. I find it interesting that you started this floral intuitively. It works!

cathyswatercolors said...

wonderful, I love the colors.

RH Carpenter said...

Michelle, I just awarded you the Brillante Weblog award from my blog - see the post for Sunday, Aug. 3 for info.

Have a great week!