A bit of a change...

Recently, a few changes in my life have left me with less time to paint.  I like to paint slow, coming back to the work over and over again, often while it is still wet and workable (something I love about working with oils).  With my slow style and new time constraints I'll be lucky to get anything accomplished!  I decided that I needed to change things up and encourage myself to work faster in the process.  I chose to use a small canvas, a palette knife and acrylic paint.  By using acrylic I don't have the luxury of putting the work aside and coming back hours later to a still wet painting and therefore have to work faster.  Using the palette knife forces me away from getting bogged down in fine detail and the amount of time that can take up.  The small canvas gives me a chance at completing a piece in one go.  My first attempt at this, shown here, seems to have gone alright.

New Work: "Periwinkles Creeping"

I recently finished up a few new pieces for the Burnaby Artists Guild Spring Show.  This is one of the new ones.  Another little one, 8" x 8" like "Coastal Strawberries".  I find that size a nice one to work with when I want to do a study of a subject.

Finished project

Here are the finished pieces to the blossom panels that I have been working on.

Commission continuation

Now that the branches are complete for the four panels that I am working on I can begin the blossoms.  I prefer to wait until the branches are finished and dry to the touch as this makes it easier from my end to work on the flowers.  I don't have to worry about putting my hand on the canvas to steady my brush, or that I might accidentally smudge something.

This is an example of how I start each individual blossom.  I use a purple / blue to divide the inside of the flower by marking off the edges of the petals, the dip in the middle of each petal and the centre.

I then use a cleaner brush to gently blend the white of the petal with the purple of the divisions.

I will then go back and add more purple to the original divisions.  I may do this process a few times, gradually darkening the centre area of each flower.  Most of the time the resulting blossom looks quite messy close up, but once I back up a few feet that messiness is not noticeable.  I have to keep this in mind when working on these as I can get in the habit of working very close to the canvas, trying to make the flower perfect from a few inches away.  This is not realistic for a painting as the viewer is likely to be standing at least a few feet away, so while I am working on it I must repeatedly back up and view the work from a distance until I am satisfied with the detail and depth in each blossom from that distance.