Beautiful Negativity

Phlox, Summer flowers on my easel

Painted in my garden this afternoon

Goodness Summer is passing so quickly. We have had wonderful friends from Hong Kong staying with us ,bringing back wonderful memories of our time living there. As the weather has been brilliant we have had fabulous meals in the garden with groups of friends we have known for some time. There comes a point when you need to walk away from what you are continually doing to take a break because doing so is good for the soul. In my case I have been working flat out on two literary projects, three gallery exhibitions and planning my USA tours for 2016/2017.

In August I will be filming a new DVD with Townhouse Films and we have been discussing the timing of it as this film will be created in my own home.  I have a zillion emails to reply to as well but outside my studio at the moment are  beautifully scented phlox, standing tall and white above the other flowers in our cottage garden. It was no use. By this afternoon I could resist them no longer and I set to work painting them.

I started by creating a negative outline around the shape of the clusters of white flowers. I worked with Daniel Smith greens and Cadmium Yellow to give me the warmth of a Summers day.

 First Wash of Phlox 

Cascading Greens give a wonderful backdrop to these beautiful white flowers

Next I defined the shape of each small flower in the clusters. I made a mental note to ensure that not all flowers faced me as they do not on the plant. They circle around the stem.I added depth behind some small blossoms and allowed others to be hit by sunlight.

 Adding detail to the flower shapes corrects the first washes' quick, loose impression

The phlox in my garden are standing in front of orange dahlia but I decided to stay with a peaceful green background in my paintings.

Phlox in my garden.

I strongly believe painting what we want to paint and when we want to paint it gives us far better results. This is a far more enjoyable way of working than than slaving away on a project you are not happy with. And oh boy am I happy!

Again I can't wait for tomorrow to continue in my studio or to be painting in my garden. Life as an artist is so good. So rewarding and so enriching because you see the beauty nature has to offer so often. Beauty I think I would casually dismiss if I wasn't drawn to painting it!

Happy Painting!

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