Botanicals #26

twenty-sixth painting

Lilac and chokecherry hedge between the houses. The lilacs bloom purple and the chokecherry blooms white. This is our main entrance to the house and the bushes that I see the most.

I paint the two houses bright so your eyes ping pongs back and forth between them and the lush explosion of leaves, branches and flowers settles between the houses. The postman said this was a really good painting!

botanicals #26 May 26, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #25

twenty-fifth painting

OK I need to start painting earlier before the heat. I start at 10:30 and work until 2:30, sunny hot midday woozy time.

The painting is full of motion as petals, leaves and branches all take off in different directions yet the subtle pallet choices keep the image calm.

Two different birds sit in the bush. This is not an accurate bird rendering. The bird flew away and I was left trying to remember. I know the one I am painting had a tinge of red on it's head but the light tummy is a guess. I think the two different birds combine in my mind. Usually I go to look at a guide book to figure out the species and colouring but the woozy hot head wins and I dash it off. So unlike me but here I am doing it.

botanicals #25 May 25, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #24

twenty-fourth painting

It is hot and I am sitting out in it facing the lilacs. My head is a bit woozy from the heat. Marshall is in the neighbour's wadding pool, that is how hot it is. Our lilacs are challenging to paint. Lilacs form clusters of over a hundred individual flowers and each flower has many pointy petals. This is not your regular smooth petalled lilac.

The intense greens in the shadows give it a jungle aesthetic. I like the cookie cutter feel of the pale leaves against the dark background.

botanicals #24 May 24, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #23

twenty-third painting

It is hot so I am painting the dandelion under the plum tree. Nice and shady. Of course with dandelions I have my pick of painting spots.

When there is one plant it is easy to focus on it especially when dirt acts as a matte for the image. The leaves form a circle, each flower is a circle and all have active edges. Pink plum blossom stems are strewn in the dirt.

botanicals #23 May 23, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #22

twenty-second painting

I am painting on the front lawn as my son and the neighbour boy are having a massive water gun fight in the backyard and because of yesterday's painting disaster, call me cautious. The dandelions are short and stubby in the front lawn. I should be weeding and mowing but instead I am sitting and painting. Ah well we all have our priorities.

I went to the store and I have new linseed oil, a large tube of white and a thin liner brush. The oil and this brush combine to give  a joyful thin stroke that I wiggle across the canvas. In this work - pattern takes over from form. It is a happy wallpaper like circular swirling of flowers, as the flowers and I are uplifted by the warm spring sun.

botanicals #22 May 22, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #21

twenty-first painting

I am in the back yard and the dandelions have sprung up all over the lawn, Their sunny yellow head the Marie Antoinette of the neighbourhood. I like them as they are pretty with the lacy leaves and cheery flower and the amazing fact that they are food.

Just has I finish this painting and take the photograph when a Frisbee is tossed and it hits and sticks to my painting - amazing considering how small my painting is and how big the yard is.

Our cloth Frisbee is old and hundreds of red fibres embed in the sticky wet oil paint. I have to wipe off the whole painting except for the top left corner a spot that was not my best bit. I paint again and it is better. Often there is a painting out part of the image as you go, an educated gamble that what you will add will say more, be more or integrate all the other parts of the painting better. It was an accident and I am OK with it as it is all part of the rambling plein-air adventure.

This is a thick painting as I am out of linseed oil so the brush strokes have a blocky look. I make a painting of swirling bits and pieces with a dropping out of existence in the middle. All the flowers frame this nothingness.

botanicals #21a May 21, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

botanicals #21b May 21, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #20

twentieth painting

Marshall and Oona are home sick. I make a bed on the sidewalk for Marshall and he cuddles in the blankets and draws the flowers beside him. So good. He also goes on the tree swing so I paint him. I want to record how the old apple tree blooms on different sides on different years.

This apple tree portrait is a wide shot to include the top and bottom of the tree.  The bottom has a swing, slide and trampoline. We use this tree as a play structure support. It is an intimate and unusual space so I painted to document. The top of the tree is blossoms and leaves and done with a loose smashing of brush strokes to create a wild far reaching feel.

botanicals #20 May 20, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #19

nineteenth painting

I am back outside and there are bees. The pink tulips are fully opening to the warmth. All 3 of my children are sick, home from school and coming outside barefooted, runny nosed and having endless requests.  It is another day that I would have never painted except for the one-a-day structure.

Butter cream texture of thick paint is pushed by bristle brushes leaving the remnants of the joy of strokes. A fat bee circles by.

botanicals #19 May 19, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

out of linseed oil so am using thick butter cream style painting

Botanicals #18

eighteenth painting

I am listening to an audio library book about a teen witch saving her community, my back is to the window blocking out the image of...... all the snow outside. Snow in mid May.  I am making another Mother's Day rose painting.

I am lost for hours in the folding petals of the roses.

botanicals #18 May 18, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

I hurt my wrist pulling weeds in the rain.

Botanicals #17

seventeenth painting

Ok, lightening storms, icy rains and high wind warnings, I am dedicated to plein-air but I guess I have limits so I am in my studio today painting the yellow roses that I was given for Mother's day. The small roses are a living plant that I will plant in the yard.

The dark leaves anchor the yellow roses floating above them. I am cutting in a thick pale purplish white background. I am building a contrast of stroke sizes - large brush for the background to give one's eye a break from the short stroked jumbly leave.

botanicals #17 May 17, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #16

sixteenth painting

It is warmer. I am still in the front yard under the twin pine trees. So many birds, rabbits, squirrels and dogs and their walkers romp around me going about there important activities.

I am trying to show the structure of the violet plant, how the leaves are heart shaped with tiny ruffled edges, how the flower has a head part that juts out behind the flower and how all the leaves and flowers connect at a central base stock. I am painting an accurate rendering and then surrounding it with dirt and a confetti of pine needles and flattened dried grass.

botanicals #16 May 16, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #15

fifteenth painting

I am still thinking about paint shortages even though I have fresh new tubes of white and sap green so I paint using lots of linseed oil to extend the paint. It has a lovely transparent look and the lines slip and glide across the canvas.

I am recalling the Betty Crocker cookbook from my childhood. The drawings used to really disturbed me because the line drawings were off set from the fill colours.  I used this style today, stroking on colour then drawing the image on top.  This look accentuates the hiddenness of the violets in the grass. One-a-day painting encourages me to experiment.

botanicals #15 May 15, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #14

fourteenth painting

It is 7 at night and still raining. I am painting looking out the side door.

The dark branches of the chokecherry tree and lilac bush swirl around. A rabbit hops by. The rain creates soft lighting. 

botanicals #14 May 14, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #13

thirteenth painting

My daughter's whole class walks by me painting in the front yard. They are cleaning up the neighbourhood. She says hi. Many of them say hi.

Delicate violets on their thin stems. I painted this fragileness by using thin brush stokes. I painted the optimism of spring by using a soft bright pallet and a churning directional movement.

botanicals #13 May 13, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #12

twelfth painting

I am painting the violets under the pine tree.

The ground cover is pine needles and strands of dead bleached grasses. I am making the poky stroky feeling of this cover and the softness of the violets patterning through it.

botanicals #12 May 12, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #11

eleventh painting

It is still cold and I am still dressed in double clothing. There are pansies companioning the tulips. My daughter chose the pansies and planted them herself. The red tulips were here when we bought the house 10 years ago so who knows how many years these bulbs have been popping up tulips.

I am running out of paint and I am stressing about it. I have the tiniest bit of white so I use yesterday's pallet colours. This is a "everybody get in the picture" painting, chives, tulips and pansies make a more is more image.

botanicals #11 May 11, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #10

Tenth Painting

It is so cold I am wearing 2 hats, 2 coats and 2 pairs of pants. I look like a plump mushroom sitting here. I want to go inside and take a hot bath but I am out here on the sidewalk painting, ah the power of the one-a-days.

I am painting a single red tulip from top to bottom. I don't want any complexity because I don't want to problem solve. It is a simple painting simply painted.

botanicals #10 May 10, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #9

ninth painting
The red tulip beside our side door is closed-up because it is so cold about 5 degrees.

It is so simple the long stock leading to the shocking red bud. I paint it simply, only once and not going back into it. I shift the stock to the left side of the composing so to leave this feeling that there is more to come that the flower will advance even though it will not move like a dancer but it will have a next movement of self, an opening.

botanicals #9 May 9, 2015 oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #8

eighth painting
It snowed on me. At first I thought the wind was brings down bits of blossoms but no it was snow in May. There are rabbits that hop and nibble their way through the yard as I paint, so I added one as it posed for me 4 ft in front of my easel.

I used a new softer brush which gave me a slapping stroke with the white. After painting the blossom clusters I wanted to try a simple branch. Some of the petals are knocked off by the rain and snow. I find myself painting in the missing petals and feel like a cheat so I brush the extra painted petals off the canvas and leave the gaps.

botanicals #8 May 8, 2015 oil on canvas  9" x 12"

Botanicals #7

seventh painting
It is raining and I chose to pick a crab apple blossom and use it as a still life in the studio.
I really wish I had a tarp or large umbrella set up. This just felt sad to do as I had picked and therefore killed the branch. The branch was so gnarly obviously from years of growth, it is from a old tree. There are birds in the trees outside my window but it is so still and lifeless inside.

It is a pale painting, the sky is pale with clouds and the blossoms are pale. I went with a soft smeary strokes.

botanicals # 7 May 7, 2015  oil on canvas 9" x 12"

Botanicals #6

sixth painting
The plum tree is still in full bloom and a large butterfly was drinking it's nectar.

I night before I was watching "The Great Painting Challenge" the British TV paint off. It is enjoyable to watch others paint and see the work progress. One of the artists sketched his paintings out with pencil first. I have not done that in a long time with plein-air work as it slows me down. I usually sketch with paint but I used pencil for this one and I am still wondering if it allows for more complexity.  It has me concentrating more on angles and comparative proportion and less on the sculptural shapes.

botanicals #6 May 6, 2015 oil on canvas  9" x 12"

Botanicals #5

fifth painting
This ball of blossoms on a stick jiggled back and forth in the wind. A lot of bees again! Must wear my hat or they get stuck in my hair.

I started with a dark background and shaped the form with white from that. 

Botanical #5 May 5, 2015, oil on canvas  9" x 12"

Botanicals #4

fourth painting

The plum tree is blossoming. There are lots different types of bees, big fat bumble bees, medium dusty yellow and brown bees and then thin narrow bees. I want an identification book on bees. I paint them but they are trickier that the stationary blossoms. I am a bit nervous as so many land on me and sadly on my pallet.

I am painting the shapes of the blossom clusters and only gesturing at individual flowers. The dark purple branch weights the painting as the rest is lacy and floating. The background is a sample color of bright spring green of the grasses below the tree.


 

Botanicals # 4

May 4, 2015  oil on canvas Brenna George

Oona is home from school sick so I make a bed for her on the desk. She reads Calvin and Hobbs and I paint.

 

 

Botanicals # 3

It is a windy day and the fragile flower on it's thin stock shutters and bends. It wavers back and forth settling on different poses. 

I paint the various poses the flower takes. I smear and make multiple lines as indicators of motion. There is bright sun and I record the white highlights in the foreground, more stationary, plant. The peachy brown colour of the background is derived from the highlights of the dead leaves and I paint it flat to mimic botanical prints where context, background is absent.

Botanicals # 3 oil on canvas May 3, 2015

Botanicals #2

Second painting.
Lots of large bumble bees with orange bums going under the dead leaves.
Two chickadees land on a branch and touch beaks.

botanicals

I am starting a one-a-day painting series for 60 days. I am creating small 9'x12" oil paintings on canvas of plein-air botanicals of individual plants. I am interested in time passage an non-photographic approach - not a perfect moment but a human sitting with a plant and experiencing, wind, insects and what ever else happens in that 1 to 5 hours together.  With paint I am using a botanical print style meets messy human mind.

 

day 1

Palette talk.

100 Painted Bottoms

My new upcoming performance art piece "100 Painted Bottoms"