Floral Glimpses

 

Floral Glimpses

 April 10 to June 10, 2025

9 x 11 ¼ on BFK white paper

The initial tracing for this had been done a long time ago, and I finally decided to do it. I taped it to an easel and used a couple shades of green pan pastel to lay in some background color. I then had to redraw a couple lines that partially disappeared. Surprisingly, a title came to me right away.

Over the next week or so, I did a little more. I added a little darker green behind the top right flower, then just for the fun of it, I made a couple of swaths with pink on the petals even though I’m not ready to tackle those yet. I added dark and lighter greens to the upper flower, then pink on some of the petals. It’s a start. 

One day, coming in from working in the yard, I stood admiring the wall of already-finished floral paintings and had an idea. What if, before I get multiple layers on the painting, I use pencils to put sharper lines along the edges of the petals? So, I did, doing the pink petals and the purple. Then while at it, I also delineated the dark background leaves which I’d put in the other day using a lighter green.

I liked it and will have to remember to do that with all the florals as I trace the outlines to get the shapes right. Unfortunately, after the gardening work, I was too achy to stand and do more painting.

April 23: Two stints on this in the studio, over an hour; refining, coloring, and more. I’m always amazed when I discover little aspects I hadn’t noticed before. It makes me wonder about the background. Darn, as always, I should’ve done more in the beginning. (photo 7936)

I was pretty much done with the top flower and had all the others colored in. Now it was down to the details. I started to play around with raindrops. (photo 7938)

Looking at the progress photo next morning, I decided I liked the lighter far background. It gives more depth. I needed to do more lost and found edges… some lines needing more definition, like the outer tips of petals.

So, I went in the studio and began further defining edges using pencils. I worked left to right, starting with the purple flowers, then up to the big pink, and even redoing the buds at the very top. I added more shading and better definitions. In the end, I worked on the top flower, which I thought I’d finished yesterday. Again, it’s about better definition and shading. 

I signed it, then realized I hadn’t done rain drops. Of course, the layers are too thick to get a clear drop, so I sprayed workable fixative to see if that will help. Another idea would be to use a tortillon to take off areas where I’d like to put a drop of water. I also tried using a kneaded eraser and a darker pink pencil to add depths to the sides of the raindrops.  

May 13: I moved this to the sit-down easel, used a charcoal pencil to define some edges. I also used a light pink to create more brightness in the petals. After reading about using an electric eraser for the raindrops, I gave it a try. I did some quick preliminary work. I’ll need to add more eraser and define the shadows of the drops.

May 27: Redid the light blue-green background. Smudged other background into tight places, then had to redo all petal and leaf edges. In the end, I did away with the raindrops. (photo 8428)

May 28: Nan said the two purple flowers in the lower right, with the white rings around the centers look like two eyes. Of course, when she said that, I could see it … and once you become aware of it, you can’t not see it. I scribbled the top of another just below which I’ll detail later.

June 15: Used alcohol on a brush to “wash” the dark background areas. (After attending an art reception the night before and seeing an artist use alcohol on her background during a paint-around.) Oops, I have to watch for runniness – though some people say they let the runs add to their paintings.

Nan again said the two purple flowers looked like eyeballs and suggested I make the very bottom one much bigger. So, after changing the light teal on the right side into darker green, I started reworking that smaller purple blossom I’d added on the lower left. I made it bigger, moved it to the right a little more, but those two flowers above it still looked like eyeballs. Adding that smaller flower then made it look more like a face with the center like a nose.

I wiped it off and redid it as a pink flower, but again, it all still looked like a face. So, I decided to make the second purple flower from the left more like the upper right-side pink flower. I went back and forth in the studio FOUR more times trying to get it right. Each time, I found faults. At least those three flowers are not looking like a face now, but …

June 21: I woke thinking about cropping and inch from the bottom. So, when I got up, I went in the studio and put another strip of tape lightly across the top of the previous to see if I like better. I did and called it finished.