A Sun Filled Bouquet – Recapping The Process

The Inspiration

A late August trip to pick summer annuals at Black Fox Flower Farms was the inspiration for my latest painting.

This sunny bouquet featured sunflowers, rudbeckia, zinnias and queen anne’s lace.

As you can see from the photo here, those yellows looked so fresh and bright against the background greens.

Let me show you how the painting process went.

Initial Background Wash

Uncharacteristically for me, I started the painting with a light overall pale yellow and green wash to block in the blossoms.

And then, I adjourned for a two-day roadtrip to visit a friend.  By the time I returned to the studio, the bouquet was looking pretty sad!

Two Days Later – The Oh So Sad Bouquet

Fortunately, I had taken a photo of my first run at the arrangement – before I had tweaked the position of the flowers for the painting.

So at least I had that photo to work from as I sat in the company of the now-so-sad bouquet.

I’m usually more of a direct alla prima painter – meaning that I complete the painting in one go usually on dry paper – and don’t do a lot of layering.

But with the soft wash underpainting on this one, it required a different approach.

Negative Painting Of Darks

I went in with dark greens and used negative painting to pop the blossoms forward.

Lifted Stems In The Negative Painting Area

Once dry, I lifted lines threaded through the dark colors to create the light stems which gave life to the whole bouquet.

I washed in some cerulean blue behind the top of the bouquet to cool down the yellow background.

That touch of blue also helped connect the top of the bouquet to the cool blue of the glass vase.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with the result. See the image below for the finished painting. BTW, it is available for purchase.

Next time, I won’t pause so long between step one and step two. The flowers just won’t wait.

The Finished Painting