I have had this 12″x12″ watercolor canvas sitting around and I thought I would do a tulip painting on it, but when I was looking through my flower photos I came across some sunflowers and one just about jumped out at me. The photo is one I took when we went to the Denver Botanical Gardens. We didn’t actually go in as the cost was too much so I took some pics of the flowers that surrounded the area and this sunflower was one of them.
This past fall some friends of ours in Arivaca got married and they had sunflowers in their garden as the back drop. I decided I would do a painting for them for their wedding present. So, I asked Jenni (the bride) to take some pics of the sunflowers that she liked and she gave me some and I have been looking at them for months and in the end used one of my own<G>. It is the kind of sunflower that is their favorite though, so I think this will be great. All I need to do is spray some fixative on it and it will be finished. I do that outside because of the fumes and let me tell you today it is so windy that it wouldn’t be a good idea to try. I will do it in the morning. It tends to be calmer in the morning and the wind picks up as the day goes on. It is so dry here that there is a ton of dust in the air. It is one of those days that if you were a cowboy you would be wearing that bandana up over your face.
Back to the painting. I had a lot of fun with this. Canvas is so different from paper for the watercolors. It takes some getting used to. I painted the center of the sunflower with really thick paint. that isn’t a typical watercolor technique, but it was fun and I think it works for this painting. The petals have many, many glazes on them. The nice thing about this watercolor canvas is that if something isn’t working, you can wipe it off and start over. On the other hand, it is difficult to apply a glaze over existing paint. It really takes some practice and you have to have a very light touch. In the end, I think it worked. I was a little worried when I was in the middle of it, but today it all fell into place and turned out just how i wanted it too. Don’t you just love it when that happens? So, here is the painting, “Sunflowers on Canvas”
I have to say that it looks way better in person. I’m not happy with this photo at all. Chris really tried to get it to look like it is supposed to, but it didn’t work. So, the center is not as crazy looking in real life. The blue background is a little bit darker, and the petals well, they just look better, fresher. so, use your imagination with this one!
Great job, the center looks like an eye to me. I love the color washes on the petals and the hazy breezy blue in the background is the perfect compliment to the colors of the flower. I hate it when I can not get a good picture, it drives me nuts. In your area, you might want to take pictures at first daylight, early in the morning. You’ll think there isn’t enough light at first then when you take a picture outside with no flash in cloudy almost light of first morning all your colors will be right in tone and you won’t have to futz with it to correct. I have found that coming south has changed all of my picture taking…I used to do them any time, because of the northern angle of the sun…but here you got to get up early and take pictures. It’s taken me a while to figure these things out again…Whew! Sending love!
I literally almost went into a hypnotic trance staring at this!!!!!!!……maybe I’m not getting enough sleep…….
Sunflowers always have been a fave…….keep on going little engine. I sent you a couple pieces via E-Mail as I tried to attach them to these comments….DUHHHHHHHH.
Sue
Heather,
I will try that with taking the pics in early morning light. It has been really windy for a couple of days and we woke up to it still windy, so, I can’t do anything with it until it settles down out there. We have a friend visiting and he said it looked like an iris(of the eye) too. ya just never know! hehehe
Sue,
I got the pics thanks! I love sunflowers too. And boy do I have the photos to show it! I will probably do another one on canvas at some point. It worked well on a square canvas. But then it doesn’t have the stem or leaves either which of course make it look more real, but I decided to leave them out for this one.
I LOVE IT! I wish I could see it in person.
Well, you might be able to. I may be bringing it with me when we come to MN and then shipping it from there. i guess it depends on how much room we have in the car. It will be tight! Wish we had the van. Do you have room in your apt. for the painting “The journey Begins? That is the sunset one with the monument valley theme. I need places to put some of my paintings and know how much you like that one. But it is big.
Sara,
When are you coming up again?
I love that one. I would make a space for it, if you want to have it hang with me for a while.
Joanie
hi Joanie,
It should be the beginning of June. Hopefully I will have space in the car for it. Otherwise I could look into shipping it. It has a heavy frame though, so that may not work. But, we will probably be shipping other things, do I
m hoping we have room for it. I would loe for it to hang on your wall!