Sunday, June 1, 2008

Summer Bouquet 12 x 12


These flowers from our garden were so pretty that I had to take advantage of their beauty and paint them quickly. I wanted to have a black background to bring out the color of the flowers and for it to have the old masters look. My mother has referred to the black background as a black velvet painting. Hopefully it doesn't look like that. At first there were too many details in the oak leaf hydrangea, and they looked a little hokey so I simplified them. Before I could even finish the painting and look at each flower some of them had moved toward the light I was using; especially the purple flower at the very top it was standing straight up. At work I have a few small prints that I purchased at the National Gallery of Art of detailed bouquets painted in the early 1900's. I wonder how they got the details without the flowers either wilting or moving in different directions. Maybe they painted them in sections and then put them all together.

1 comment:

Karen Appleton said...

Christine I love this painting. The dark background is wonderful and the delicate flowers are just beautiful and so well painted. The question you asked about how other artists paint flowers has always been one of my questions too.