Gentle giants

We are back to looking at the flowers in my garden of hues. We took a little detour to the butterfly garden and the bird feeder and now we are back to looking at flowers. Big red poppies come out the first of July and last two weeks. They are here and then gone. They are so fragile. Their stocks are strong but their blooms are frail. I have painted a bunch of these and I love to paint them in watercolors, oils, and acrylic.

Gentle Giants

This one is a watercolor on 300# paper, half sheet. I painted a large one like this and sold it, so I had to paint another one. Each one has a different look but the same subject. I paint loose and leave a lot of white in my watercolors. To get that loose rendering, most of it is done wet on wet. This means I apply clear water before I start.

I start with wetting down the top part of the paper. I add a little green or blue and on the right side I add a tint of orange. This one doesn't show it, but it feels transparent, (lots of water and a dab of orange) will make sunshine. It can not be opaque or it becomes flat instead of the feeling of  looking through it. You can't see sunshine, you just feel it. While the papr is wet I start with the top flowers, I add alizian Crimson and the wetness of the paper causes the lines to disappear.

Now, this is the trick, throw in coarse salt. When the sheen comes off the paper, add salt. That means the paper is still wet but not ina puddle.  If it is a puddle, then the salt will disappear. The salt will make crystals. Let it dry good before you brush the salt off.

Next step I wet the left side of the vase and do the same thing. This time I will add a little green foliage.  Poppy leaves are ragged fern-like spears. Be careful that when you add the water to the left side, carve around the white base.  The water serves as a boundary. You can drop any color in and let it fuse together, but the color will not go beyond the boundary.

The pot is another trick.  Wet the pot with clean water.  Add a little transparent blue to the right side, drop in a little pink as a  reflection.  You want it to look like white china, but you must put in shadows or the pot will be a flat white surface. Remember, save the whites, it is a white pot.

Basking in the sunshine!

This pot belonged to my Grandmother. It was a water pot with the bowl for washing. It is about 100 years old and is a treasure.