Apple Blossom -two ways

I posted this to show the Apple Blossom we were painting in my watercolor classes, one shows the flower cluster without a background, and the other with a background added after painting the flowers.

Here is the finished painting.

As I discussed in the previous posting, the luminous dark background was achieved by painting several layers of color by glazing one over the other allowing the previous color to shine through. Little bits of more intense color were dropped in to allow for a more interesting effect than just a flat background.

Clematis

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I thought it was time to add a few flowers to my blog, since I do more of them and landscapes than I do the still lifes. I really love the look of close up flowers especially when they have a lot of contrast.  I painted this for my watercolor class , but they did not get to it as a subject to paint, as we were too busy painting apple blossoms. I will post one of those from class as well. The only way to really get the luminous darks is to glaze the color on in layers,  that way you can see various tones coming through each other like stained glass.

It's fun to paint that way, but it takes a lot of time,  and you have to be patient and wait for each layer to dry sufficiently first. 

Briefly Balanced

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This painting challenge was painting the rose, which was placed in a precarious balance position on the jar. The flower kept unfurling its petals more as the painting was going, despite this being a quick study. As light moves constantly while pleine air painting, so do flower petals in still life's sometimes move as they decide to change directions and open and close. Leaves move at their own whim when gravity takes hold, especailly on flowers out of water. One has to capture the essence of the scene and go from there, if the objects are not completely "still". Or resort to some tape sometimes. :)