#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.

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flour from the windmill next door, making pasta with special flour I have in my larder (ok, so the flour there is a bit out of date) and making lots of cakes.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.

Day 12 of 30 Three Sunflowers

Three Sunflowers. 8" x 8" oil

I couldn't resist having another go at the sunflowers. Having painted just the one yesterday, I painted three today and feel that the flowers are a little looser . 

I think I am generally happier with this but it maybe a tad on the small side. Perhaps a larger board would loosen me up even more?

Day 11 of 30

Sunflower 8" x 8" oil

I loved painting this beauty. As I finished the sun came out and shone through the petals. Wow, what an amazing sight. Hoping for sun tomorrow 😊