The jacaranda painting is finished! I will live with it on the easel for a few days because I sometimes need to make slight adjustments as they present themselves. After that time I shall have it professionally processed at Art House Reproductions in Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland for a more accurate representation of the true colour of the painting. Once I get the file, I will repost it in order for a comparison to be made. Until then, I shall work on the hibiscus and preparation for my painting of stivali le donne. (Hope my Italian is correct!)

Whilst working on the jacaranda, I have started a small (30x30cm) watercolour of a hibiscus that flowered in my garden. I have planted a couple of varieties for future paintings. In the painting, I am not including too much leaf, as I want it to be a close up of the flower similar to the view in the photograph. The background is painted first with dark areas in brown and green tones to suggest nature and a few green highlights, to hint at the leaves. I shall then paint in the flower head in one session and add final details and shadows when it is dry.

 

Photo of the flower as it is in the garden

 

Painting is not the exact view, but is based on the flower in reality.

The painting is in the 'end game' stage and should only take a couple more sessions. I am happy with the addition of the 'out of focus' yellow/green shapes in the top left of the painting and will consider adding a touch in other parts of the painting if I feel that the composition needs it.

I have introduced more green/yellow/ochre colours in the background of the top left. I am blurring the edges against the sky which adulterates the sky a little but, any colour that we see, is influenced by the colours we see around them.
I sometimes bring a little of the painting out of the frame and, at first, I decided not to do this, as most of the flowers would come too far out of the frame to be comfortable. As a last minute decision, I decided to bring out the low petal at the bottom. Because it was dark, I first wet it with clean water and then added more colour on top so as to eliminate a possible 'line' through the petal caused by the original edge to the painting. I then add colour in spots on the wet surface until I am happy that it looks natural. After a day or so, when it is completely dry, I will know if I have been successful or not. If not, I shall have to keep adding paint until any possible 'line ' is eliminated.

 detail

I find it very interesting to observe how different lighting affects the way I perceive the colour of the painting. Taken in daylight the painting has a distinct 'blue' bias but with the addition of an artificial light it takes on a purple bias. The bulb used with the artificial light is advertised to give daylight, but it obviously does not compete with reality. I noted the colour of the paper in each photograph and, in the one with artificial light, the paper appears to have a 'yellow' tinge when in actual fact is is very white so, with that said, the one with the blue bias is more true to life.

The shadow section is now almost complete. There will be some more dark 'peeping in' on the extreme left of the painting, but the top two flower ends will be in sunlight and, therefore, will be relatively pale. I am considering adding some blurry green shapes in the sky background on the left  to break up the vast expanse of the same colour. If I want to have a shape stand out I tend to leave it a little 'hard edged' ( not so much that it appears ' stuck on!) but otherwise I blend the edges of the shapes with clean water to make them look more natural. 

Little painting done today but I thought I'd blog it anyway. I hope to be able to spend more time tomorrow. Even when I'm not painting it is never far from my mind. I will make the flower to the top of the left side of where I am working more sunlit in contrast to the shadow section below.

The area at the bottom left has a number of buds that are facing to the right. I have included these in an attempt to arrest the eye of the viewer and stop it from wondering off the edge of the painting.

Today I have been working on the small details in the bottom left of the painting. They are buds, twigs, exposed stamens which have little focus but they are necessary for the composition. The colour of the photograph today is closer to the actual colour of the painting.

What doesn't show in the photographs that I am posting is the overpainting which serves to darken areas already painted, or the areas that I have 'blotted' to lighten them slightly. There are also sometimes areas that have been slightly changed because of an accident with paint. I occasionally have paint on parts of my hand, which is then accidentally transferred to the areas of the painting already painted (as in the session today!) I then have to blot them off with clean water and, once dry, rescue the area by changing the shape or colour. You may notice a slight change in colour to yesterdays post which had more natural light than todays and is, therefore, more true to life.

More time to paint today than expected. Though I want the painting to have a morning light feel to it, it can't be too 'blue' as it would not then be true to the colour of the tree. I want the petal ends of the unpainted flower to be a little more lit so that it strengthens the feel of light.

After I completed the flower in the middle, which is highlighted by the sunlight catching the edges of the petals, I felt that a very dark flower beneath it would provide contrast and add some dimension. It is a bit easier to see now, how the flowers will negate the diagonal twig somewhat. Click on the image to see a closer view. Tomorrow is my teaching day so may not get a chance to paint, but we shall see!

It is beginning to look like a 'sea' of colour now. I would like the viewer to be lost in it. Not that this photo gives the best rendition of the colour which is a little more intense in life.

Personal chores have kept me busy lately, so I have only been able to add a little to the painting by putting in some more of the more abstract shapes around the flower shapes.

This is a 'busy' painting, but that is the nature of the tree. I don't intend there to be a single flower focus because, when you look at the tree in 'life', it is the overall colour that impresses.

Just a little more added today. The photos were taken when dark outside so the lighting has affected the colour which is not a true representation of it in reality.

 Detail

The journey continues. There are a few flower ends where the hanging trumpet-like flowers open into petals that are crucial to the composition. Because watercolour is a little unforgiving of mistakes I have to admit that I am a little hesitant to start them. The need to be completed relatively in one sitting and, to make a mistake with tone or colour could ruin the coherence of the overall painting. I shall attempt one tomorrow and we shall see!

When I paint flora, I like to put in little imperfections that are commonly found on the plant, including parts where an insect may have had a feed, growths that have developed on a leaf or flowers that are in the end stage and fading in colour before they drop off. In this case, the recently added flower is in that end stage and is, therefore, a little more dull compared to the rest. This can be evident even if it is in sunshine or, like this one, more in the shade. This is one of the reasons that I don't paint flowers in a still life. When a flower is cut it starts to die and, consequently, begins to change colour so, because of this you may not see the true colour or the differences between full bloom and fading because of natural attrition.

Today was a cold and windy day by Queensland standards so instead of working in the garden I spent a little more time painting. Even though the strong diagonal twig will have a tendency to split the painting in half, I am hoping that having some strong flower head shapes over the top of it, will negate that possibility but I shall have to wait until I've finished to see if my intention works.

Amongst the abstract shapes there are recognisable flower shapes. It is the drooping trumpet shape that characterises the jacaranda and, along with the colour, gives the painting its subject. The swoop from the right to the left is what brings our eye from drifting off to the right of the work. This should be more apparent when the painting is complete.
For a couple of hours each week, I teach mathematics to a small group of bright children at a Brisbane school. I love maths and it seems part of my nature. I think that this influences the way I approach my art, because I work in sections and complete it before I move on, as opposed to working in a random fashion across a painting.

Whilst many of these flowers are a little silhouetted against the sky and are therefore mostly dark, I still want a little light reflected on the edges of some of the petals to create the 3D image. This is also enhanced by adding some small shadows that follow the form of the flower as in the flower at the top left of the painted area.

Many of the areas of colour are just abstract in shape but look the part when juxtapositioned between more recognisable flower shapes.

 Detail.

I like to think of what I am doing at this stage as adding a 'wave' of colour that washes over the paper from one corner to the other,

unlike the previous stages where work happens on different sections of the painting in a more overall fashion.

More detail added. It is not hard to see why this tree is a favourite with many in Australia. When the flowers drop, they form a purple carpet. It is so popular, that there is a colour of purple named after the tree! (With purists, the tree is actually a 'weed' tree!)

 Detail. 

I am beginning to see the sun in this work now.  As the darker tones are added next to the lighter tones, the contrast accentuates the effect. One of my main aims, is to create an illusion of the effect of the sun. Even though watercolour is unforgiving, it is possible to correct accidents somewhat. Behind the branches at the top right, I accidentally smudged a little yellow paint from the side of my hand. I blotted off most of the paint and, once dry, added a couple of buds. It would not have been easy to blend in the smudges with the sky and it remain a uniform overall colour and tone.

Just a little more detail added. I spend some of the time contemplating on what paint I am to apply, as it is critical with this style of watercolour to be sure. If a tone is too dark, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to lighten it. With an overall composition like this, though, there is some forgiveness and little errors are lost in the 'crowd'.

Detail.

I am now working on the flower shapes,  using French Ultramarine, Ultramarine Violet, Winsor Violet, Alizarin Crimson, Brown Madder and Cerulean Blue. The painting can present as an abstract of flower shapes, because it is the overall pattern of the flowers on the tree that I am trying to capture. In this way, the focus should not be on a particular flower but on the overall 'feel'.

As i continue with this painting the small additions will only be noticeable if the current photograph is compared with the previous one.
I have painted one Jacaranda before but it was an afternoon light which makes the colour have a red bias. This one is a morning light which should have a slight blue bias. Most of the colour at this stage is shadow colour which has even more blue bias as in the original painting. The trick is to still keep the special colour of the jacaranda overall. I have added a picture of the first painting to compare.