Art group exercise….

Quite a challenge. We were requested to provide, between ourselves, flowers, foliage ( for which I volunteered), vases and clothes for today’s meeting. The objective to paint directly a large floral arrangement ; if possible with only a small preliminary pencil sketch to “measure/size” components of the composition.

My end of the room reckoned we had drawn the short straw with a rather”lumpy ” arrangement in a narrow, white, Chinese patterned jug! Where as the top end of the room were tasked with paintings some very elegant stargazer lilies and trailing ivy in an equally elegant vase.

Tiny pencil sketch completed, I put two lines on my paper to indicate the width of the jug, a couple of circles and ovals to position the predominant blooms and got stuck in with a lot of very wet sap green watercolour, working hookers green and Payne’s grey in wet on wet trying to concentrate on the negative spaces. Letting the greens dry a bit I then tackled a few light washes of colour to position the various flowers and orange lily buds. It all seemed rather frenetic. Anyway, I persisted and am not displeased with the result.

I am particularly chuffed that I finished the jug and handle freehand with a paintbrush.

Inspiration for another painting at home. A bit more pencil work this time to position the tulips…..