Field Poppies I - A Work in Progress

Although today is warmer at 8F (-13.3C) the wind chill is making it feel a lot colder at -14F (25.6C) and we are supposed to get both snow and freezing rain later in the day.

I thought I would work on another sketch of poppies today this time a field of them standing tall against a bright morning sky.














For this painting I will use a canvas that was called Background 59 (see post on 18 December 2015) which should work quite well.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have transferred the sketch onto the canvas and started painting in the background grasses and leaves.

Poppies and Fence Post I - A Work in Progress

Happy Valentine's Day! At least today is warmer at -11F (-23.9C) and not very much wind when compared to yesterday.

Since it is not going to be a nice day I thought I would work on sketches of poppies, which are bright and bold flowers and seeing them in bloom in the early part of the summer always cheers me up.

And since I need some new paintings for the upcoming Floral and Still Life show in April what could be more appropriate.

I pulled out some of the yellow based acrylic backgrounds that were made using the remaining paint and decided that Background 73 (see post on 26 January 2016) would work well with this drawing.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have transferred the sketch and started painting the fence post.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork.

Poppies 2

Today as I sat on the front lawn enjoying a cup of tea, I decided to do a pencil drawing of my poppies which are out in full bloom.

The sad part about poppies is that they last for such a short time.














I may at a later date do a painting of them, with their bright red colouring.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and look at the artwork.

Sunlit Poppies

In my garden the first of my tall irises are blooming, the lavender ones and the beautiful royal purple ones in the main bed, as well as the pale, yellow ones in the rose garden. Many of the other irises have buds which will soon open with their wealth of colours and elegant beauty.

Yesterday the first of my poppies bloomed and today there is a riot of red in the front beds of the house garden. Poppies are one of my favourite flowers and I look forward to them blooming every year.

It is not often that I have apple blossoms, lilacs, tulips, bleeding hearts, irises and poppies in bloom all at the same time.

It seems that with the cold weather and the snow staying for so much longer this year than before, they are trying to make up for lost time.

My peonies are also full of buds and it will not be long before they are in full bloom.

With the poppies now out and blooming I decided that I would work on this painting that I recently found on a shelf in a stack of watercolor paper.

All it needed was me to go through and add the small white "hairs" on the stems and the unopened bud of the poppies.

This original 8-1/2" x 13” watercolour painting once it is framed will be available for $365.00.

Field Poppies - A Work in Progress

The temperature continues to sit at 22F (-5.5C) and it is snowing again.

To get into a brighter mood I decided to work on one of my favourite flowers the poppy (13 December 2013).

I had started this painting back in November of last year as part of a class demonstration.

In a small plastic container I first mixed a puddle of pure raw sienna and then set it aside. In another container I mixed raw sienna with Antwerp blue for a brighter green colour. In a third container I mixed together French ultramarine blue and raw sienna for a darker more olive coloured green.

Then I wet the paper with water and while the "glow" was coming off the wet paper I mixed some pure burnt sienna in one section of my palette, in another section some pure French ultramarine blue and I made a dark mixture of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

First I poured the raw sienna over the upper part of the paper and toward the right side, being sure to leave some areas of white.

Next using the bright green I poured it into the center of the painting and rolled it around. Then with the paint brush moved some soft lines outward in leave shapes.

Using the final container of dark green I poured it mainly towards the bottom of the painting and rolled some of the paint toward the center of the painting.

Lastly using a brush and each of the colours mixed on my palette I painted in various soft leaf shapes. Once the paper was completely dry I removed the masking fluid.

I will post this painting at a later date once more of the painting has been completed.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Pansies, Poppies and Hibiscus - Four Works in Progress

These are the four paintings that were used during the final watercolour class I taught at KAGS on the 26th last month.

My students had been told the week previous to bring in one piece of paper with a drawing of poppies and that they were to be masked out.

On another they would have drawn pansies.

Purple Pansies

The first thing I had them do when they arrived was to mix a yellow and a red in two separate containers and wet a piece of paper.

Then they poured the two colours over the paper and rolled the paint around to mix the colours.

The result was a peach colour and then set it aside to dry. 

Field Poppies

I demonstrated how one petal at a time is worked and then the next petal to be painted is not touching the first petal so the colour does not bleed into it.

Next I demonstrated how to paint the colour patterns on the pansy petals and that the lines need to curve in order to give the illusion of shape.













Hibiscus 1

Next I gave each student a piece of torn paper to use as a template.

They were shown how to paint around the template with mixtures of red, yellow and blues and allow it to mix on the paper

I quickly showed where to place the stamens and the direction of the curve for the lines in the petals.













Single Poppy 1

After letting them work on their own paintings for a little while, I had them come back and did a demonstration of how to work on a poppy.

I painted in the dark centre first and then added a few of the darker shadows.

Next I worked on the poppy petals showing how the creases have shadows, lights and highlights.

I will post these paintings at a later date as they are completed.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork. I hope you will return often.

Poppies and Fence Post - A Work in Progress

While at the Shades of Summer show I spent some time working on drawings of poppies. This is the finished drawing for a new painting of poppies growing at the base of a fence post.

I saw a scene similar to this along Highway 507 toward the end of June and though t it would make a lovely painting.

I will post this painting at a later date after I put in the background washes of sky and greenery.

Windblown Poppies - A Work in Progress

Today was the last meeting of the Buckhorn Painters Group until September. This was one of the paintings I worked on while I was there.

The poppies had been drawn onto the paper and then masked out.

Once the masking fluid was dry the soft background was created by wetting the paper and then pouring in a medium mixture of raw sienna and rolling it around on the paper to cover the area behind the masked out poppies and leaving some areas of white showing.

While the paper was gradually drying a green of raw sienna and Antwerp blue was poured into the middle of the cluster of poppies. Using a flat brush it was moved outwards from the poppies to give the impression of foliage.

As the paper was drying French ultramarine blue was added to darken the green mix and a few more leaves were painted into the lighter green with a little more detail to give some definition to the poppy leaves. The background is now completed and the painting was set aside to dry completely before removing the masking fluid.

Each petal is painted in stages. The base colour is a wash of alizarin crimson and the areas where the bright white highlight will be is left completely without paint, allowing the paper to be my white.










A little more alizarin crimson is added to the wash to darken the colour slightly and the next layer of colour is applied leaving the palest areas with just the base wash of colour. To the third layer of paint a small amount of cadmium red is added to the alizarin crimson which seems to give a richer more vibrant colour. More cadmium red is added to the colour mix and another layer of colour is applied.

A little bit of the green mix is glazed over the red and is painted in the areas where the darkest colour will be located and to show some of the reflected greens from the background colour. Some of the highlights are painted in with cadmium yellow to give a soft golden glow.

A very dark purple mixture of French ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson and burnt sienna is used for the dark center of the poppy.

The stems and buds are painted using various greens made from mixtures of Antwerp blue, raw sienna and French ultramarine blue.

The poppies are in various stages of completion as layers of wash are gradually built up on each petal and stalk.

As I finish more of the flowers I will post this to the blog.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Poppies

This is an original, 1-1/2" x 4” framed watercolour.

With the unseasonable warm weather we have been having my poppies are just starting to come up out of the ground. They are one of my favourite flowers. It is such a shame that you can only enjoy their beauty for such a short time. I look forward to June when they are all in bloom.

Congratulations to Mrs. Dawn E. Cox of Peterborough, Ontario for adding this painting to her collection. SOLD