Flowers and Seeing Their Shapes

Flowers, Glass and Stripes

8x6in oil on canvas panel  125. SOLD

Artist Note

The focus this month at the Artists Guild,
is on Flowers and learning how to 'see"
the negative areas around the flowers
as positive shapes to help define them.
The painting above is a demo.
You will notice that only one flower is defined
clearly by shape and a dark center,
the rest are suggested more abstractly.

The background was painted at the same time,
and by that I mean I did not do the flowers
and vase first then add the background. Instead
I wove in and out of all the colors and shapes
incorporating the transition flecks of colors
into each area. Gradually I started to define
certain areas more than others.

I started off the demo showing the simplified
basic shape of any of the flowers picked by the
artists to be painted. The round shape is the
most popular but remembering to put it in an ellipse
or watching for any chance to see an asymmetrical
area is fun and important.
Details to be added after establishing shape.

Next a quick demo of the method of painting
negative areas with the same importance of
judging color, value and edges as with
the positive areas.
It is quite a mental adjustment!