Umbrella Girls : April Showers 2014

" Umbrella Girls"

As it is pouring with rain I became distracted from painting my gorgeous Spring flower collection. I have been listening to the sound of the rain on my studio window panes. I liked the pretty rhythm it made so decided to paint a rainy day scene instead. A while back, I went to a friends wedding in France. We were all dismayed to see the rain start just as the wedding party arrived at the church. I was one of the photograhers,  so managed to capture some stunning images to work from  in my studio. Two beautiful bridemaids arrived in long,white satin dresses. They shared an umbrella as they left the bridal cars. The umbrellas were black in reality but in my painting I decided to make the umbrella white to match the dresses. And of course, gery as a background wouldn't be a believable "Jean Haines" painting!

Everyone who knows how I work will understand that I never use a preliminary pencil sketch. I find my subjects by colour alone. I started this piece with the negative outline of the white umbrella. Once this was in place I allowed pigment application to literally rain "over" the shape.  It was beautiful adding colour at the top of the paper and watching it fall around the white space of the brolly. I loved it! Next I dropped flesh colour tones underneath the umbrella and left this stage to dry before working further.

 Umbrella Girls

Stage1.Gorgeous colour falling around my umbrella shape on paper.

I love how viewers often watch my art progress when they cannot see what is in my imagination. I know what is going to happen or appear next but they don't and they are often mesmerised. Even in this blurred stage of my painting I can see the outline of the two girls. The eldest bridesmaid in the foreground is holding the umbrella for her younger sister.

 Umbrella Girls

Stage 2. Adding the arm.

I had a fabulous time mixing flesh tones to create a warm glow on the arm. This young girl lives in France so I think her golden tan was natural. She positively glowed with the beauty of young clear skin that teenagers often possess.

Umbrella Girls

Adding hair to the first  bridesmaid and then an outline for the first bridesmaid dress.

Sadly this young girls gorgeous face was completely hidden by her thick and lustrous hair but in a way this fact adds to the mysterty of the painting. I know  this young girl was beautiful but the viewer of my finished piece will not.  I want to work on the second bridesmaid next and maybe even start a new painting as this is such a delightful piece to work on.

I was tempted to keep this  painting for my new book or solo exhibition unveiling but I imagined if I am enjoying painting it so much maybe the followers of my blog will too. And it is a complete change from flowers!

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I have to add my that new book is now looking so exciting that it is very hard tearing myself away from writing it! I hope from this blog post you can get a feel of how wonderful my next book is going to be. Full of surprises and gorgeous step by steps!