Poppy Field : Dancing in the Wind

Atmospheric poppy field coming to life in watercolour.

"Dancing in the Wind" 

I am sharing this blog post for the artist who showed me a delightful poppy field image last week and asked me know how to paint it. We had spent time in my workshop looking at ways to tell a story via exciting washes. I had demonstrated how I would go about painting this scene.  I must confess when I leave a workshop and look at my demonstrations pieces later on, I often love bringing them to life further without looking at any resource photographs. Sometimes when we observe ,especially from photographs, we see far too much detail. Making it very hard to keep the freshness or spontaniety in  finished results.

So for the artist who asked the question. I have kept my background greenery very soft as I don't wish to detract from the importance of the poppies in the foreground. The poppies get smaller as they fade into the distance. One poppy at the front will steal the show by being the star of this painting.

My Chinese mentor was on my mind whilst I worked this piece a little further. They told me, years ago, to imagine if a subject could move or not when painting it. Poppies are so delicate in the wild and seem to dance with the wind. So that is what I am aiming to depict. Flowers dancing with the wind and there is my title.

" Dancing in the Wind"

I will add a little detail to the foreground poppy then begin a huge new piece making the whole story up which will be far more fun. 

Artist Tip of the Day; Try not to continually restrict yourself to painting on small pieces of paper as these often restrict your brush movement and sense of freedom when working.  Be brave and go BIG!