Flower Paintings

I must admit, many flower paintings leave me impressed by their technical accuracy and technique, but as portraits they don't reach me.  I rarely paint them myself.  But today when I was down at Ocean Point, I rounded a sharp curve and looked at the house I had just painted.  The poppies were close to the road and were set off by the dark silhouette of the house.  It nearly brought tears it was so lovely. I snapped a quick photo and after lunch, set up the easel in my back yard.

Color choices:  Since the poppies were light pink, the foliage was the complementary color of green.  I loved the shape of the house in the background, but I didn't want details of the house to distract from the flowers.  So I used the shape of the house without all of its architectural details.  I also kept it to a neutral gray to highlight the colorful poppies.

I often remind students that you can create a "trail" of values once you have the color and paint on the brush.  I like to make a broken trail of darks near the focal point, leaving the outer edges a neutral midtone.

Happy summer solstice!