Not a lot of progress, as I have been busy entertaining client guests, but enough to begin to show the balance of flower areas in the composition.
I shall include the flowers that are in shadow first and the sun lit ones after. The flowers in shadow will have a darker, but more intense colour saturation and the others will show some sun bleaching of the colour. In this way it should enhance the lit quality of the work.
The composition is also beginning to indicate the 'triangle' impression that I like to use, which gives it 'stability'.

The leaves in this painting are mostly dark and silhouetted against a light background. The background areas will be quite small so that they do not compete with the flowers which will be in sunlight dimensionally in front of the leaves.
I chose to do this so that the cup and saucer will not be too camouflaged against the 'busy' background. I want to emphasise the dimension so that the cup will also have the effect of being in amongst the foliage, and not just 'floating' in front or superimposed on top. We shall see when it is complete if I have been successful or not!

The composition has been outlined and I have begun to add the darkest areas. These areas are the leaves that will be silhouetted against a lighter background.
I fluctuate when painting between starting with the darkest areas or finishing with them!
I finally decided to add the cup to the bottom left as opposed to being in the centre as with the first of the series, 'Tea Garden'.

Not the best photo but the beginnings of the composition. I have decided to place the cup to the left in this painting, though there is more to be added above what is seen here.
I will add the flower design on the cup once I have sketched in the rest of the composition.

My next watercolour project is a companion to 'Tea Garden' which features a cup and saucer with a poppy design, in a field of poppies. This one will feature the tibouchina shrub with its violet flowers and a representative cup which I have yet to decide on. I have found a cup with violet flowers on but I don't think that I will ever find one depicting the tibouchina so I will use artistic licence and adapt! The actual shrub can be seen on Saiala Road in East Killara, a suburb of Sydney, where I spent the Easter week with my wife, seen in the photo, and our son and his family.

The completed painting. I wanted the grassy background to be quite loose in contrast to the subject, so that it would not dominate. Straight on to planning my next watercolour which will be a companion to the 'Tea Garden' painting and another in my series of cups in a natural setting. It will be based on the tibouchina  shrub with beautiful purple or pink blooms. Very prevalent in the northern suburbs in Sydney.

A background wash of the sunlit meadow has been added to the rest of the painting with progressive textures to be overlaid on top of this to match the background already completed.
This wash is quite loose, but  texture will be added in layers, using masking fluid, in much the same way as a batik is produced.
I do not want the background to be dominant, but it has to 'ring' true to nature, with its slightly understated tones providing contrast to the strongly focussed tones of the subject.