Pinks in Watercolour

 Pinks in watercolour

On my easel in my studio

It really is a very busy Summer as days are flying by, with weeks rolling from one into the other, without a break seemingly. However for the last few days a wonderful close friend has been visiting me from Hong Kong, where she lives and where we met years ago. We now see each other once a year at least and to catch up is heaven.

We were wandering around our delightful cottage garden enjoying the flowers and then later popped into my studio as my friend had asked to see my latest paintings. On the way to my studio, I had picked a sweetly scented "pink" flower delighted by their heady fragrance. I was still carrying it when my friend, Anne, asked me how I would paint it.  I happily showed my approach to the charming subject. In seconds a little study of the flower appeared. Many ideas arose on how I would paint more of these flowers this week.

Painting from life, for me, is far more fascinating than working from photographs. I enjoy observing shape, form and colour combinations. I regularly encourage artists on my workshops to put their photographs to one side , to allow them to compose their own compositions from studying something that is real, in front of them and in natural light. It is so much more interesting to work this way.

So my artist tip of the day is "Forget painting from photographs " and paint from life as often as possible. It will definitely make you a far better artist.

Painting flowers from life. 

So much better than copying a composition from an already composed photograph!