Unfurling petals: drawing flowers
Over the summer, I've had a "spare time" project drawing and painting flowers from our garden and allotment. I love the sculptural shapes, colour contrasts and flowing lines. We often think of flower paintings as being a bit traditional and tame but I'm on a mission to paint flowers in a way that's dynamic and contemporary!
I struggled at first to draw directly from the flowers in situ, as they and their surroundings are so busy and complicated. It was frustrating to see all the lovely colours and not be able to capture them with ease. After many different approaches, I settled on simple pen lines, usually biro and pieces of smooth card that were easy to carry around.
Over time (I'm talking a couple of years here!) I began to understand the shapes and started to draw with less hesitation and more fluency. I still think I've a long way to go, but I have a trajectory now and feel more confident. I sit or stand to draw just for half an hour at a time as concentration quickly flags.
Whilst I've also painted out of doors, in general, these simple drawn outlines and a few photos for colour reference, are all that's needed in the way of preliminary research. I've released myself from the pressure to create beautiful colour studies on location. I do think it's important to draw the real flowers - drawing from photographs is not as well-informed about their structure.
I've quite a big collection of these drawings now which I shuffle through to find a starting point for a mixed-media painting.
I feel like I'm still at the beginning of the creative journey for this theme and approach. I know I don't want to be too realistic. I also want to use some really exciting and innovative techniques as that's what really energises me when I'm working: the discovery of a new method or material that's perfect for the subject matter.
If you've been following for a while, you'll know that I've been using collaged papers to portray flower and plant shapes. This is working well, but I'm looking at other approaches to the flower and it's background. These are some recent studies that I made very casually with no idea where I was going!
For these pieces, I laid down ink washes and soluble crayon marks then worked into these with pencil and more ink. I used white ink to paint the negative shapes which was really fun to do. I've noticed a number of contemporary artists like Sally Anne Fitter create colourful surfaces then paint back the negative shapes.
I'm enjoying the slightly ad hoc way I can capture bits of expressive paintwork to suggest the character of a particular flower without painting all it's details accurately. It keeps things fresh and lively.
I've also started collaging patterned paper into the colour study to add another level of interest, break up the background space and provide some structure. It's very satisfying to draw over it and create secondary and tertiary layers.
These few images are all sections from a concertina sketchbook I made.
I attended a course: Creative Concertina Sketchbook - Moving into Abstraction at Lund Studios with Karen Stamper who is well known for this. You can see a page below from my sketchbook below. We worked fast with inks, crayons and collage using a range of techniques. It was very liberating! There's a lot I can take away from this to use in my own practice.
I had the opportunity to work out of doors for a week in August. My son was attending a course in Nottingham and I occupied myself by drawing and painting in the nearby graveyard! Now this might sound a bit morbid but it was most wonderfully overgrown with grasses and yellow ragwort that contrasted beautifully with the grey and black gravestones.
The weather was incredibly hot but I took my sketching rucksack and worked there every morning. Most of my efforts were not very good - I can't bear to show you! But towards the end of the week, I was starting to get a handle on a mixed-media approach to this subject which was beginning to capture what I found interesting about the place.
Art takes time and getting to know a new subject also takes time. Think of Monet returning to Rouen Cathedral day after day. As you start to build knowledge of a subject, draw and re-draw over time, things just have to improve!
I'm really looking forward to developing this theme. I'll work from my drawings and photographs over the winter and look forward to spring for more sketching out of doors. I'm also really excited to be signed up for Tessa Pearson's course - Garden Landscapes in Mixed Media on Paper - Exploring Colour and Pattern - at the Lund next July! She's well known for her bold, expressive flower paintings and screenprints.
I love your honesty about your creative journey. It's inspiring for those of us who don't have your level of talent. Thank you for sharing.