Personal Art Blog

Sharing the lessons I teach at the Artist Guild and the personal discoveries in my art.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

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!



















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39 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Sue - I enjoyed seeing the results of your teaching - very much.

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  2. This is beautiful!

    I'm eager to give this a try - I love floral paintings, but have struggled when trying to paint them. It would give me such pleasure to be able to paint flowers!

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    1. I should imagine you will be great at flowers. I love your color sense - that plus shapes are the main influence.
      I am excited for you retiring.Enjoy your workshop..

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  3. I love the way you paint flowers, they are so joyful :)

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  4. Great post Julie. I love how our eyes fill in the "abstract" flowers. Thanks for the beautiful painting and the lovely instruction. Good to see you walking forward.

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    1. Hi Helen. I like YOUR new painting too. Guess we have a mutual admiration going on!

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  5. Beautiful color and shapes here and I always love your lessons. You should write a book!

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    1. Just visited your blog and saw we did a similar theme of negative and positive shaped worked together. I encourage everyone to look at Mary's blog today. It is a beautiful example of my demo

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  6. Oh you do negative space better than any I've seen before, Julie. This looks like a normal painting and I can generally tell a negative space painted piece. I think this is beautiful and I so love the sample flowers painted using negative space too!

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  7. Joyous bouquet Julie, you never ever deny us the joy through your florals. I have photographed a lot of flowers with abstracted shapes,it is amazing to note abstraction in nature which is unbelievable.

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    1. Love your new Buddha painting. So many beautiful areas of abstraction to support the wonderful realism. Thanks for the lovely comment,

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  8. The shapes are all pretty fun aren't they, including the spaces between. A great reminder to look at everything and see it all as a whole as well as a bunch of parts. And the flowers as always are beautiful.

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    1. I enjoyed seeing the photo for your next painting. Didn't "Rosie the Riveter" wear a scarf like that?
      Thanks for the visit and comment.

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  9. I love your flowers with stripes! The colors sing... great demos and sketches.

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    1. Thanks Celia - YOUR colors sing in a marvelous way on your pansy painting.

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  10. I love seeing your demos Julie. You do flowers so beautifully.

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    1. Thanks, Bruce. I think you do too. Your beautiful blue shutters set of the flowers perfectly on your post today.

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  11. I have a folder that is titled "art skill info". A lot of your postings are located there! Thank you for always sharing! This is beautiful!

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    1. Well - you are so nice. Thanks for the huge complement, Kaethe.
      Love the dog painting today and understand your loss of a beloved pet. Don't we miss them in a huge way.

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  12. Thanks, once again, for an excellent, highly informative post, Julie!!

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    Replies
    1. You are welcome, Friend... and must say I am very impressed with your skillful drawing on today's post.

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  13. Beautiful painting! Thanks for sharing your insights.

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  14. Thanks for the comment and I must say how much I love your red onions. You have the light on them in such a great way...

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  15. Julie, I think I might have to have this!
    Would you like to trade? If not, no problem.
    It is beautiful!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Dee - I tried this once before and never got an answer back so would like to if you email me
      juliefordoliver@gmail.com

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  16. Bravo! Nice little mini workshop on flower painting which is beautiful I might add. I raise my cup of Earl Gray to you.

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    1. Enjoyed a good laugh, thanks Blanche.
      I used to adore a cuppa of good tea but got kidney stones from it,... and had to go herbal. Crying shame!

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  17. A gorgeous floral, Julie!! and of course, your posts are always SO interesting...

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    1. Thanks Hilda - really looking forward to seeing your next piece.

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  18. your flowers are so beautiful! for me - one of the hardest things to paint!

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    Replies
    1. And yet you paint them so beautifully. I think my fav parts of your latest paintings have been the patches on the knees. Today's drawing on your new blog was amazing.

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  19. Loved your post on shapes. Reminds me of Helen Van Wyk and her emphasis on the shapes of flowers. Those green mixtures in the leaves are so yummy!

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  20. Dear Julie watching this beautiful composition my eyes are fascinated by the transparency of the glass and the play of shadows at the bottom. The flowers are positioned as precious gems on the light background, but even here, always with colors that recall the others. A great rhythm pervades the work alternating positive and negative, cool and warm, transparent and solid .... this rhythm of shapes and colors that I'm trying to achieve in my work in watercolor, here vibrates to maximum.

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  21. This is a lovely abstract floral painting and thank you for sharing the progress. It is interesting to realize that there is only one flower that is clearly defined, but it only shows that the mind fill in the rest, a hint can be enough.

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  22. Julie - what a beautiful painting - just love the way you did all the background and gave the one flower the spotlight. You are so generous too in showing the methods of simplifying the flower shapes. I have never been very good at this...especially roses - I just get too caught up in the "nooks and crannies". Wish I was there sitting in your work shop with you. Hope you are having a delightful day.

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I love that you are taking the time to comment and thank you for it. I am sure other readers will enjoy them too. If you cannot comment through this format then email me at juliefordoliver@gmail.com
Cheers,
Julie