040216 12x12 Summer Flowers

This painting features coneflowers and Queens Anne's Lace with lovely, delicate colors.  I start by blocking in the dark greens of the trees in the background and start popping in the earth colors and greens in the foreground.

I continue blocking in the earth tones and the greenery. I scratch in the outline of the bird bath using a nifty tool with a pointed rubber tip.

Details of the coneflowers and Queens Anne's Lace are added.

The birdbath didn't make it to the finished painting which you can see here:

"Coneflowers and Queens Anne's Lace", 12" x 12", oil on panel, c. 2016, by Charlene Marsh.

Thanks for following along!  

Happy Trails!

Charlene Marsh

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032416 24x36 Summer Flowers Next to the Creek

The support for this painting is a 24" x 36" hardboard panel that I have already prepped and tinted with napthol crimson acrylic paint.  The rule is "fat over lean" meaning oil can go over acrylic but not vice versa.  Same rule applies to food, too!  Ha!  Fruit (lean) first followed by fats!  Fruit digests so quickly, that if you eat it after the fat, it will start to ferment in your digestive system and cause problems.

Anyway, back to the painting.  I draw out the initial sketch using a brush dipped in cold pressed linseed oil and magenta and cerulean blue. 

I mix a dark green using Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow Light, and a bit of Magenta Red or Cadmium Red Medium and start blocking in the background trees.  A dark earth color is mixed with the Ultra Blue and Cadmium Red Medium and used to flesh out the creek bed.

I mix blue greens to recede into the background and mix greens with more yellow and warmer colors to move forward.

I mix a violet with the Magenta and Cerulean or Magenta and Ultra Blue and pick up a little mixed green to dull it down a bit.

I mix a turquoise for the creek as well as some of the Cadmium Red Medium mixed with Cerulean Blue.

I mix a very light sky blue with Cerulean and Titanium White and pop it in along the horizon line where the sky is lightest. 

 The sky is filled in with a mix of Cerulean Blue and Titanium White.

Once I have the "muscles" of the painting in place, I start adding the flowers. 
I use the pure Cadmium Red Medium and Light for the poppies.  A mix of the magenta with a touch of yellow and lot of white are used for the initial hollyhocks.  As the painting progresses, I mix up various hues and values for the hollyhocks.  Some with magenta and white and other mixes have some cerulean or ultra blue added. 

I add the little waterfall to the creek and the ripples on the water.  All the while continuing to add all kinds of flowers to the painting.  

Wildflowers, poppies, lilies, sunflowers, and Queen Anne's Lace are added and worked over the surface. 

And the finished painting, "Summer Flowers Next to the Creek", oil on panel, 24" x 36", #032416 24x36, by Charlene Marsh.

Thanks for following along!

Happy Trails!

Charlene 

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Hollyhocks, Echinacea, Lilies, Daisies, and Queen Anne's Lace Code #121515 S 12x12

Let's end the year with a lovely flower painting! 

I first make a panel by cutting the hardboard into the size I want then sealing the panel with GAC 100.  I apply two coats of gesso to the front and back sides of the panel.  Then I tint the panel with a napthol crimson red acrylic paint.   Using alizarin crimson and cerulean oil paints thinned with cold pressed linseed oil, I sketch the initial drawing on the panel staying very loose with the drawing.  This preliminary sketch is used to place where I want the flowers and pool and birdbath to go and the basic structure of the painting.

I start with the darkest darks of the background trees and the foreground space.  I also pop in the pure reds and pinks of the flowers.

I have a rubber tipped implement -- looks kinda like an eraser tip -- to loosely add branches and tendrils.  I also put in the birdbath.  I work back and forth between the foreground and background as well as all over the entire surface at the same time.

Flowers are added and then pushed back or painted over and even painted out, in an ongoing "back and forth" play throughout the entire surface.

The finished painting, "Hollyhocks, Echinacea, Lilies, Daisies, and Queen Anne's Lace" next to a gold fish pool.  Oil on panel, 12" x 12", c. 2015. Code #121515 S 12x1.  SOLD.

I want to wish you a Happy New Year and many blessings in 2016!  I appreciate you very much!  You are the reason I continue to paint and create beautiful artwork to enrich our living spaces and lives!  Thank you for your interest and support over the years!  I plan to make 2016 the best year ever with more fabulous paintings!

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Cheers,

Charlene

Magic Lilies and Hollyhocks 112415 S 12x12

As the days grow shorter and  grayer and the nights grow longer and colder,  I thought it would be nice to paint a cheery, summer, flower scene to remind us of warmer, lighter days that will return.

I start with a sketch made with a brush dipped in a mix of magenta and cerulean blue.  Then I start by mixing some deep, rich greens, blocking in the darkest darks using a palette knife to both mix the colors and apply the paint.

Then I block in the colors and values over the entire panel.  I block in a goldfish pool in the lower right area and lay out where hollyhocks rise in the back.  Magic lilies appear in the pumpkin patch.
 

 
Once I have the basic blocks of shapes and colors I go into the details and fine tuning.  Queen Anne's Lace and marigolds dance across the surface and details added to the overflowing flowers.  I pull out any shapes that need to sit in front of other background shapes.  Here is the finished painting, "Magic Lilies and Hollyhocks", oil on panel, 12" x 12", 112415 S 12x12:  
 

Thanks for checking in and following my artistic journey!

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Happy Trails! 

Charlene