#30days20 A Flower Challenge

I'm still keeping up with the flower painting challenge set by Roos Schuring. I feel also that I am making progress, I certainly feel more confident when I start the painting.

No. 10 of 20

Single white daffodil  8"x 6"

Believe it or not white is one of the hardest things I find to paint, there are so many subtle colours if you look really hard. I used a pallet knife to create more interest in the background. It was painted over an old painting which has given more texture to the painting.

No. 11 of 20

White Tulips  12"x 12"

Still playing with white flowers I moved onto the tulips, I was more pleased with this. I love this little jug that I bought at a street market in France. I think now I am getting to grips with backgrounds too.

No. 12 of 20

WIP

Frank brought a load of tulips back from work, they were nearly past their best so I had to work quickly on this. I spent three hours getting the form and colour of the tulips down but now need to work on the back and foreground. I have put it to one side for now and hope to return to it with fresh eyes and enthusiasm.

No. 13 of 20

Red Parrot Tulips  12"x 12"

These beauties were fully blown and begging to be painted. Boy, did I enjoy this, I think it shows too. I completed it in just over an hour. I was concentrating more on the flower than the background, In hindsight , it could have been more considered. I still love it though

No. 14 of 20

Pheasant Eye & Bluebells  14"x10"

Another quickie, I set myself a strict time limit to avoid any fiddling. Painted over an old painting, I used dark glazes in the background to throw out the brilliance of the flower. I used large brushes for most of the picture to help keep it simple. I am particularly pleased with the glass. Old Holland Violet Grey was the perfect colour to use for the Bluebells, I used it again in the shadows of the narcissus. This was completed in less than an hour, I could have carried on but I'm pleased I didn't.

#30in20 Flower challenge

The best thing about this challenge is, that you don't have to paint every day, although I am trying to, I don't feel guilty when I spend a day gardening. Always a dilemma at this time of year as there is so much to do out there but at the same time, all those beautiful tulips and daffodils are calling to be painted.

5 of 20

Yellow Daffodils

Having painted this I have decided that it looks rather stiff, the foreground cloth is a bit severe too. I quite like the complimentary colour of the background. I will be revisiting this one once it has dried a bit

6 0f 20

Pink Camellia

I've been tempted every year to have a crack at painting my Camillia. It puts on a fantastic show every year but I always seem to find something else to do Ha ha. (coward)
I know I have to push myself so, here it is. I wanted to add the tube of Micheal Harding 'Brilliant Pink' for added interest.

7 of 20

Pink Camellia 2

Wanted to try this one again but with different background and different highlight colours

8 of 20

Pink Camellia 3

Got it!! It needed a darker background and softer edges. I like the way the light comes through he jar. I think I'll put this one away for now and try something different tomorrow

9 of 20

Pansies & Primroses

detail

Well, I said I'd try something different!  I stood in the garden for this. Painted over two days as the sun moved too quickly. I really enjoyed this. I did struggle with getting highlights on the pansies. The addition of white just killed the brilliance of the violet. I resorted to Kings Blue Light and Old Holland violet Grey.in the end. Still some experimenting to be done there me thinks.

Although I am still not entirely pleased with anything yet, I do feel that I have learned a lot. Also looking at all the work by the other artists taking part, I can see how many of them too have learned a lot.

This flower challenge is created by Roos Schuring
You can see all the other artists' work HERE

Artist in lockdown

 Now wouldn't you think that now we are confined to our homes, that I would have all the time in the world to paint? Nope!! I seem to be constantly busy and, to be perfectly honest, very happy about it.
I'm being very resourceful and creating meals from things in the store cupboard, making my own bread, using flour from the windmill next door, making pasta with special flour I have in my larder (ok, so the flour there is a bit out of date) and making lots of cakes. I must say too that I am definitely giving the scales a wide berth at the moment.
We are also very busy in the garden having lost three rather large conifer trees. This has opened up a whole new area of the garden. I will do a separate post on that later.

So, painting, yes, I must do more.
I needed a bit of motivation so I signed up to an online challenge set by Roos Schuring, a dutch artist. The challenge is to paint 20 flower paintings in 30 days. There is so much coming into flower in our garden right now that I thought I'd give it a go. Because of course, once you publicly commit you feel obliged to carry it through.

Narcissus 'Mondragon'

Day 1

This was the first effort, I enjoyed painting the flower and thought it needed a dark background to make it stand out. On reflection maybe a complimentary colour would have worked just as well.

Contre Jour

Day 2

This second painting in the studio was set so that the sun was behind the subject. I was trying to capture 'that' light. Still not happy with the background. I feel there is not enough colour in the picture.

Narcissus 'Geranium' and paint tube

Day 3
This one I was more pleased with. I wanted to make it not just about the flowers  but also to part of the studio so, I included a tube of paint used in the picture and my turps container. The tube echoes the colours in the flowers.

Yellow & White Daffodils

Day 4
Here I set myself a strict time limit (40 minutes) I wanted to make sure I didn't fiddle. My aim was for pure colour, complimentary background and soft edges. On the whole, I am quite pleased with the result.

If you want to see more paintings in the Roos Schuring challenge you can head over to Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/30days20/

I will be back with a update in a couple of days.