Floral Paintings

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on a series of smaller (11″x14″) floral paintings for my show at the Indi Go artist coop in downtown Champaign. I completed the first three watercolors (an iris and two sets of peonies) at home, and I painted the last two (moss rose and poppies) during demonstrations at the art gallery.

Floral paintings are a nice change of pace for me after painting something as realistic and tight as Mabel. They allow me to loosen up a bit and exploit the happy accidents that occur whenever I use the wet-into-wet watercolor technique. I also pump up the colors and alter the compositions here and there. Some areas in floral paintings approach pure abstraction, and you know what? Every now and then, if a petal is slightly out of place, I don’t really care! Who’s going to know? So the pressure’s off, unlike when I’m painting someone’s nose, for example.

I started and finished this trio of peonies in one day as roofers were pounding away overhead. I was so into my work that after a while I stopped noticing the godawful racket, and six years of teaching in a junior high building also helped me block out the sound. Eventually the cats stopped shooting me alarmed glances and went back to their important business of napping.

Once again I painted for hours while roofers pounded relentlessly over my head. This iris resulted in a sore neck/shoulder, but I love this painting. For a while I wasn’t sure. I rarely use a purple/yellow palette and I’ve never painted an iris before. But now that I’ve had some time away from the picture and can look on it with fresh eyes, I’ve got to say that I’m pleased with its fluttery translucence.

This is another view of the peonies above. I exaggerated the yellow here a bit, wanting it to pop against the cool colors in the shadowy petals. I love peonies so much, and these were the first three blooms produced by our single peony plant. It kind of lags behind the other neighborhood peonies when it’s time to bloom. I monitor it on a daily basis in late May, noting every change and even rejoicing when ants appear on its big, fat buds.

Moss roses are the only variety of rose I feel I can care for with any kind of competence, and to celebrate the last day of school this year, I planted a lot of them near our koi pond. Unfortunately a family of woodchucks ate all of them. I’ve always associated the moss roses with my great-grandmother Josie Bradshaw, who planted them near her sidewalk, so this painting commemorates both. I decided to make the background a bit livelier with lots of wet-into-wet action.

This is the last painting in my rapid-fire floral series. Five paintings in nineteen on-and-off days! Like the moss rose painting, I worked on these poppies while babysitting the show at the Indi Go gallery.
I have never used this much cadmium red light (that really vivid red/orange) in my life, and I layered it over plenty of cadmium yellow light and medium. Alizarine crimson plus various blues and purples combined for the darker areas. I enjoy the way this range of colors works together. It’s also just plain fun to use colors this blazingly bright. It nearly gave me a suntan (gasp!). The petals created areas of pure abstraction that reminded me of slot canyons and volcanoes, both of which I love.

If you’re interested in owning any of this floral artwork, please head over to my watercolor paintings for sale page.