Projects

Timeline Progress of painting working title "Le Jardin Paradiso"

I started this painting waaaay back and have been working on it - on the weekends and whenever I have spare time. It is based on all the flowers in the garden at my home. I have been keeping a running progress on my www.facebook.com/lionfish.seychelles page where I had posted a pic of the the first day's progress and then kept adding new photos in the comments section every time I did a little work on it.

Here is a running progress, starting from 19 March 2016....

I started with a wavy blue sky and added the first flower - a vibrant red Hibiscus.

Close up of the Hibiscus - I drew a few versions at different angles but I liked this one best. 

My garden is full of Frangipani trees. They are all white flowering ones. Those Frangipani experts reading this will notice that I have painted the wrong type of leaf for the species of flower that I painted. My trees have these leaves which are lovely but the flowers of these trees are the 'floppy' petal type and I thought that the more common frangipani shape is prettier to paint so I kinda mixed it up a little....

At this stage I went away for a couple of weeks to India so progress slowed right down - but while in Chennai I found an amazing art supplies shop and spent hours in there and INR15,000!!! Much to the delight of the owner but which actually only converts to about US$230 - but it was money well spent as I found the perfect magenta pink paint for the Bougainvillea. I spent a whole morning in the garden studying and sketching the flowers and was pretty happy with the results. I found they are more like clusters of pink leaves than flowers on their own, with delicate tiny little creamy white daisy shaped flowers at the center.

Along with some colour added to the Frangipani and their leaves,  I was colour blocking and adding the shadows and highlights to the flowers - these are going to be painted over with layers of white paint to add depth to the white of the flowers.  I also played around with the background and surrounding area of the Hibiscus and colour blocked the Bird of Paradise flower. 

 The next photo shows the first two layers (of many!) of the Bougainvillea with white highlights on the tips of the petals and one coat on the leaves.

I don't usually work like this - I am usually a real stickler for mapping out the whole painting before adding any paint! This was my first attempt at trying to be more "free" with my painting and had in mind to just add bits here and there creating a jungle of flowers and leaves -  but its becoming increasingly difficult to get anyway as I just don't work like that and am hesitant to lay things down without knowing what is coming next! As you will see as we go along things get changed and re-painted time and again!  

This was the first time I have used a primed canvas (sold by the metre) and yes it has its benefits in that it is sooooo convenient with time being saved as you don't need to lay down layers upon layers of primer (Gesso) before you can get going. It also provides a good thick layer over the canvas that is smooth, even and blocks any light showing or pin pricks showing through. But in my opinion the cons out way the pros  - As you can see from the photo above that although I had stretched the canvas onto the frame to the best of my abilities and at the start it was tight as a drum - it started to "bag" from my elbows leaning on it to reach the middle sections (Im a flat painter - I don't use an easel). It has a very vinyl feel to it kinda plasticy and has a stretch to it - probably why I able to get it so tight on the frame. I also found that watered down paint tend to bead and sit on the surface. It also means that loads of coats are required to get any kind of depth to your colours. 

The following photos are not in chronological order as I do a little bit here and a little bit there to let the different sections dry - to avoid smudges etc. But I thought that it would be easier to follow the progression if I grouped the different areas together. 

The photo above shows that I started to fill in the background areas with colours that swirl and blend into each other. Keep your eye on the bluey green leaf top left side - I wasnt at all sure of how to use that space and made a lot of different changes to it over time, as well as the dark swirly background to the left of the hibiscus... Well in actual fact a lot of changes happen all over the painting to all the different sections! 

At this point I had added a layer of white over the Frangipanis to keep the colours subtle.

I wasnt at all happy with the pink leaf at the bottom so you will see that morph and change too!

This is the bit I really enjoy! I was going for the steamy humid feel of a tropical garden, I imagine lots of swirling mist and rainbow shafts of light peaking through the lush jungle.  I love creating the movement of the steamy atmosphere. The Frangipanes were looking a bit flat so you can see that I have gone back and blocked in the colour of the petals again trying to create more depth and shadow.