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 

Another Star Magnolia painting - as promised

In my previous post I had already promised that I would paint another Star Magnolia after the reference picture I had made in the 'Von Gimborn Arboretum' during our last visit.
One of the flowers in the picture had not opened completely and did really look stunning in front of the dark green background.

I have simplified the background again, in reality there are lots of trees and bushes making this a very crowded scene while I just want to show the beauty of the flower.
In the vicinity of the magnolia trees we had the illusion of snow falling, all the petals of the flowers that had faded were falling around  us. I have used some salt in the wet paint of the background to try to recreate that illusion.

In the past I have always said that I am not a flower painter, and I still think so but by now I am learning to paint flowers 'my way' and I really like the results of the last few paintings I have made.

As I have written before, there were a lot of reference pictures made during our visit in the Tree Museum, so there is more to be painted. But I have painted enough Magnolias for now.

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