Hollyhock

Years ago I decided that I am not a 'flower watercolourist' because the technique I was shown to paint flowers in watercolour did not at all appeal to me. Now that I am painting flowers, I still am not using that technique, but I have found my own way of painting plants - and flowers are just parts of plants.
I have tried this when I painted the corn flower and I was happy with the result, so I have decided to paint more flowers in the future.

I have made some flower pictures recently, just because I liked them and now I can use these as references for my experiments with flower painting.

For this beautiful hollyhock I chose a green background and because I mix my greens from blue and yellow this means I have a lot of different shades of green - exactly what I wanted. The flowers are almost black and there is very little contrast or shadow to find out where one flower begins and the other ends, so I have given it my best.

Of course the whole plant is much taller, but while sketching the plant using the picture as my reference I decided this to be my composition. This way I ended up with the challenge to make a green plant stand out against a green background. Of course I had a bit of a struggle here, but the result is very much like what I hoped for.
Please remember, this is only the second flower painting I am doing in this style.
(there will be more, I like this too much now)

More information about this watercolour painting (materials used, size, availability, etc) can be found at my website www.jannekesatelier.webs.com