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!