"Oh Glorious"

It all started with the purchase of a bouquet of sunflowers.

I knew if anything was going to entice me to paint again after a long absence, it would be the GLORIOUS Sunflower!

I prepped a 24 x 24 canvas with watered down magenta and yellow-medium acrylic. A paper towel took off the excess paint.

The first marks were with willow charcoal which I find pretty messy, so I switched to diluted turquoise paint for redefinition.

It isn't unusual for me to start a painting with acrylic, setting in composition and some basic color.  Artist grade acrylics are fabulous and have wonderful color properties...and I can quickly change my mind as there is little drying time.

Pretty messy at this point, and time to re-correct drawing and

begin laying in thinned oil in corresponding colors.

I paint with large flats and occasional filberts/synthetic. Working the thick, viscous paint is sheer pleasure.

You will note the paint is "sliced" through, that is thanks to a credit card, palette knife, or small piece of hard rubber dicing up the paint, creating a softened effect.  

Now I should have left this painting about here, just finishing up the vase....but I left the painting for a week or two...then couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do...meanwhile my Bell glass jar with water and flowers had ceased to be and I had no photo as reference.

Oops didn't realize how blurry this photo was, sorry, it isn't your eyes.  Anyway, I did an about face in all directions: gone-- water/vase, no soft side flowers, and clouds of swirling background. 

Eventually I became weary of this painting, sent a photo to Tam, my best critic ever, and expected to call it quits.

Uhhhhh, not quite the response expected.  Tam gave me some suggestions and I took it to heart.  She is pretty persuasive.

(By now I am not photographing my steps, as I was pretty much not enjoying the process like I had at the beginning.)

I think you would agree with me...this is far from my original design when I worked from life and ended up painting in the imaginary part of my brain.

From soft to stylized....

One thing I have learned: there are ever so many ways to paint a subject. None of which is correct or incorrect, but rather that you are pleased with the final result.  This painting, in particular the color has grown on me.

"Oh, Glorious" is happily framed and hanging in the RiverView Gallery.  410-939-6401

Anatomy of a Painting Part I

A short tutorial on a new painting.

20 x 20 cradle board....a new substrate for me, when working this large. I love it.  Before painting I apply several coats of gesso, or a gray primer paint.  Sand between coats for smoothness.  I left the sides "natural" and later whitewashed them.

Be sure to use blue tape to mask off the sides so that paint doesn't drip down.

OR

paint your scene all the way around the deep board.

Damask Sunflowers

 I bought a fading bouquet of flowers from the local grocery store. Of course they faded and died before I barely got started. So I took a photograph and then didn't use it !!!  So much for painting from "life."

 

This started out as a traditional painting, but the next day I didn't like it and scrubbed off all that I could. You can see bits and pieces of the original painting. One reason to love working on a wood surface is its resilience.

After priming the board, I rubbed in various colors of light to medium: turquoise, white, yellow, magenta..achieving a mottled appearance.

The bottom half was painted a medium yellow ochre.

Selecting a delicate floral/leaf stencil, randomly placed on the canvas, I used  a palette knife to push lavender or turquoise paint, thickened with heavy gel medium through the stencil.  Remove stencil carefully.  

These first steps were all done with acrylic full bodied paint to hasten the drying time.  

It is not unusual for me to start with acrylic, but do all large design work in oil.

I had a fabulous piece of tri-designed paper from Anthropologie, cut it into a vase shape and attached with gel medium.....you can see the original flowers I could not remove.

From here on I "winged it" and painted the flowers without photos, still life, etc.

The entire floral design, scrolls, detail work are painted with oil.  

I lightly painted over the collaged vase to blend it back into the painting.

Up close you can see the paper design and heavy stencilled background.

Although I am slow to wipe a painting off, it does happen. And in this case it led me to a knew way of looking at something.

You can see this painting on my website.  (It sold just before posting this blog! ) 

sharonfurner.com

I have one more piece to share with you...next posting.  There are many ways to approach a painting when the first idea is not the greatest....
Isn't that what LIFE is all about?