A Painting of my Ol' Birthday Flowers

Two years ago, as a gift for my birthday, I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my parents. Flowers play a big role in how my family shows appreciation. I wanted to create a painting that would juice the gratitude I felt looking at the flowers, while also preserving their effect. A still life made as an ode to their beauty. Hence, my infatuation with the impressionists; I think they achieved this nicely.

First, to study value and find a good composition, I practiced a few charcoal drawings. For more detailed studies I use graphite. Drawing from life is great when learning to "see" better. It helps painting become more intuitive and natural. A contemporary painter named Ben Stahl mentions the importance of drawing and many other basic techniques of classical artists, especially impressionists, in an episode of 'The Joy Of Painting' Titled "A Portrait of Sally" you can find on youtube. I recommend watching this video if you are interested in learning a bit about him and his advice to artists.

After drawing, I noticed more about the flowers and began to understand them better. The blossoms were made of sharp, porcupine-like pedals with a supple light pink hue. Dark green stems and leaves made a nice contrast in value and color. Pale blues and greens reflected off the water and the vase's glass corners. As I studied, I was pulled into a realm of slighty-higher awareness and even greater gratefulness! Evoking positive emotion within myself brings meaning to my art and gives me the inspiration to continue creating. The meaning behind the painting becomes a simple, yet much needed, message of love. At this point, I am excited to paint.

Here are some photos of the flowers when I received them. I always love to get my nails done with sparkles around my birthday for extra pizzaz.

Here's a photo of the flowers and some art materials on the floor of my room. A few other pieces I made at the time make an appearance in this photo, as well as in the painting. Van Gogh inspires this type of raw setup and inclusive representation that you can still find in my paintings today.

From the materials in this photo I can see that I made this painting by layering oil paint over acrylics.

Here is a close up of the painting when it was finished. Unfortunately, I didn't capture process photos of this piece, but I do remember that I made it in two sittings, about 6 hours each. It is a lower quality photo, but I will have better ones soon that I will post to a website.

When the painting is finished, I like to analyze it a bit technically. Here are some aspects of the painting I think that are successful! I used different areas of color well in this piece to create overall harmony. The contrast of the red-orange wood floor with the blue greens of the leaves near the center of the painting are vibrant and dark. Patterned dashes throughout the painting lead the eye to bright and thick-textured blossoms. Soft transitions in color and texture are used to create a greater focus on the flowers and to fill the negative space in an interesting manner. Pieces of dried paint are lined up with colors that are in the painting to create more balance with the impasto pedals (Impasto is a technique of thickly applying paint to the canvas). A drawing of a banana on newsprint is seen on the left. More newsprint paper lies folded over on the right. It's sort of frumpy and frustrated like some of Vincent's early work. I like this piece overall with a few critiques.

One weakness of the painting, in my eyes, is the lack of value. I remember being out of any cobalt, ultramarine, or french blue. I added some chips of dried Ultramarine oil paint leftover on my palette to create a few dark focal points. While trying to avoid earth tones or black to darken areas, fearing I would muddy the colors, I used green paints to make the stems. I layered over pastel and acrylic to add some more blue hues. Typically I enjoy mixing colors from primary ones. I now have plenty of blues to mix from and am more familiar with using earth tones. Another aspect I dislike about the final product is the crop. The blossoms and vase are cut off of the painting, skewing focus from the flowers. I think it's a nice composition, but I wish the flowers were fully in the painting. I experimented using thick applications of oil paint for the first time with this painting. Rendering good Impasto is more difficult than I had guessed. It will take a lot of practice to use the technique in an interesting and flattering way. As a Graphic Design Professor, my mom can also help critique my work. I study artists I admire in books and at the local museum (MIA) to help me improve on the weaknesses I find in my art.

This painting hung at MCAD for the month of May last year in an exhibit for those taking CCE (College Of Continue Education) classes. The class I took was on oil figure painting. I submitted a few pieces but this was the only one that was accepted. I was so excited! There was an opening night ceremony that had loads of greek appetizers and baklava! Delicious!! Here it is at MCAD hanging alongside some complimentary paintings from other CCE Students.

Thank you for continuing to follow and support me even though I took an extended leave from the Steemit Community. I've been off of all social media for years now, with the exception of the occasional instagram, and have put a halt sharing my journey for far too long now. I will start to post more and make peace with putting myself out there.

Thanks for Reading!
Colorful love and light,

• Kaleigh