Dahlias

I finished this painting last week, but am only now getting around to posting it.

This painting was inspired by a bouquet of dahlias I bought from the Farmer's Market in Burbank.  They were so vibrant and their petals reminded me of a watercolor painting, so I thought that I'd try it out.

The painting took a long time to draw the basic outline and to paint the first flower, but then it flowed together more easily after that.  Painting wise, I started first with the main flower, then painted the other magenta flowers, then I moved onto the red-orange flowers and painted all of those, then I painted all of the green stuff: the stems, leaves, etc.

I am really happy with how the vase turned out.  The vase I had the arrangement in is quite funky, so while I was painting it, I wasn't sure if I would be able to capture the vase well enough so that the viewer  would understand the shape of the vase holding the arrangement.

Anyway, glad that the painting is finished (can have the dining room table back!), but the process reminded me that I am really out of shape when it comes to painting.  Sure, I can sit down and paint a relatively nice painting, but without the regular practice, my technique just looks too forced to me...not enough flow.  I've decided that in the desire to get back into shape, I will take a local watercolor class to make myself practice painting weekly.  I still have to sign up, but the class should start in the middle of September.

A Sneak Peak

A week or two ago at the Farmer's Market, I bought two bunches of dahlias, one bunch a magenta/purple color and the other a red/orange color, and I put them in the same vase, on Gavin's and my dining room table.  I kept on looking at them and so loved the colors that I decided to paint them because the colors on the petals reminded me of a watercolor painting!

Well, by the time I got around to drawing them, they were almost gone, so I drew as quickly as I could, even though the drawing itself took a long time to do because I wanted to be sure to draw most of the petals so that I could capture the look of the colors on the petals.  By the time I actually started painting, the flowers were dead, so I am thankful that I took a picture of them before they went kaput.

I have been working on this painting off and on for the last few days.  Today is the first day where it actually looks like I've made any progress at all -- it took me a day or two to finish the main dahlia flower, and I only feel so-so about it right now.  Once I did the other pinky-purple flower, I liked the feel of that one much more.  But now that I'm starting to add some greens in with the stems and the flower buds, I think it is looking good and more cohesive and stuff.

I have this week off, so I'm hoping that I'll have the time and motivation to finish it this week, so I can start on some paintings that I promised awhile ago as a gift!