I was trying to change the final painting in my last post and replace it with the “final, final” painting, the one that has been tweaked to within an inch of its life. But I got mixed up with the formatting.
Stage 2
I’ve done this sketch on the back of an old painting, so it’s on decent paper. I wanted to try out the subject in a loose way. Doing this has made me look at the form of the flowers, helped me to decide whether to mask out the stamens (yes), and to check out the composition, and made me really look hard at the colours within the shadows. The jury’s still out as to what to do with the top right hand side background, whether to leave it emptier with less detail.
Found out today that this is called Nevada Rose. Have been working with acrylic inks, non permanent pen and watercolour pencils to study the subject further. Here are my efforts. I like working with acrylic ink and drawing with the pipette, mostly because I haven’t got any other suitable implement apart from a brush. But I like the variety of thicknesses of marks you get with it. Tried some water droplets as one of the photos I was working from had some on the flowers and stalks. Now I have traced the design from my freehand tonal drawing on to watercolour paper and am looking forward to having a go.
Here’s the first exploratory tonal sketch for the roses. By doing this I found out more about where the light falls on the blooms and also started to work out which leaves would be highlighted in detail and which would be simple shapes in the background. The arrangement is just about ok as it is I think. That’s something I tend to do without thinking…find a composition with the camera when I first take the photo. Now on to ink and pencils to find out more…
You remember I was going to do a loose version of the Iceland poppies? It didn’t happen. Something told me it wasn’t going to work when I found myself with gritted teeth willing myself to be loose! You can get too immersed in this business. So I found a solution yesterday. Retail therapy! Yay! Going to a wedding soon, needed to buy an outfit, and it was great to just think about inconsequential nonsense for a day.
On the subject of irises here are a couple of Iris paintings from years gone by. One has a soft background wash which was dropped in wet in wet behind masked out flowers and the other is painted on a white background. The Iris with the eucalyptus leaves is available as a giclee print.
It was Irises today at the studio workshop and we had a good time, fuelled by Andrew’s superb lunch( and a glass of wine). I’m uploading the paintings and the all important photo that people will need to finish off their work. Also my version of the three exercises we completed. Well done all!
I promised Cutthorpe Art Group that I would make this photo available to them so that they can finish today’s project. Everyone worked so hard and there were a lot of lovely paintings to look at come the end of the day. Well done, everyone…you’ll sleep well tonight!
Off to Cutthorpe Art Group near Chesterfield tomorrow. We’re going to have a look at this version of the Devon door, the photo of which has such a lovely shadow over it. It’s quite a straightforward subject and you can make it as loose or as detailed as you like. But the main area of interest is how the light is falling from the top left and delineating the stonework in the wall. I always like cast shadows and there is a lovely effect over the door and house wall and also bottom right where the nasturtiums are casting shadow over the wall.
Ann Mortimer Art 
