Artichoke - final

I'm off to the framer's with this one . . . I ordered the mat and frame last week, knowing it would be a tight turnaround.  It will be done just in the nick of time for the charity auction next Wednesday.  (If you are interested, check out Piedmont Council for the Arts.)  Working under such a hard deadline has been a good experience.  No time for messing about with this piece!  I'd say the result is satisfactory, wouldn't you?

Hope all moms had a very happy Mother's Day yesterday!  I sure did :)

I am heading into several weeks of nonstop family activity -- the two graduations are upon us!  So I will sign off for a bit.  Please check back in once June rolls around!  My next project is sure to please!

Artichoke - day 5

Well folks, what do you think? I have a few minor touches to do here and there, but I think it's pretty well done! 

When Peter took a look at it, he was wondering about the little slits at the top of many of the leaves. Does it really look like that? In his mind, he didn't imagine those notches and slits. And truthfully, an artichoke fresh off the produce truck will have leaves more uniformly green and packed tight to the core. But this artichoke has been around a while. It had some age on it when I bought it. Such character!

Well, now that I'm almost done with the painting, I can tell you a little bit more about the humble artichoke. This funky thing that we eat is actually the unopened immature flower bud of a large plant that can grow to four or five feet tall and wide!  The spiny, pointed, green bracts (they look like leaves, but they are not technically called leaves) surround the hidden flower parts. The base of each bract and the large fleshy base or receptacle (artichoke “heart”) on which the flower and bracts are borne are fleshy and edible, as you well know. If the buds are allowed to mature and open, the resulting flowers are quite attractive, large, and fragrant.  They look like huge purple thistles (not surprising, since they are related!).  They are native to the Mediterranean, but they can now be grown in many regions, including Virginia!  Thomas Jefferson grew them successfully at Monticello, by the way.

Before I race off to have it framed, I will add the latin name, Cynara scolymus.  I think that adds a certain sophistication, don't you?  Enjoy!

Artichoke - day 4

It's amazing what a little red can do.  Until today, I was painting with lemon yellow, ultramarine blue and a touch of phthalo blue.  Just two thirds of the color wheel.  By adding red to the pallette, I can now get the full range of color, and a fuller depth of field.  You know and I know there is no red in an artichoke leaf really, but if you study the shape and shaddows, you'll see that actually there's a lot of red!  Red is the complementary color of green, which means it makes a terrific shaddow color for green, and also has the effect of intensifying the appearance of green next to it. (The opposite is true too, by the way, which is why the butcher puts parsley next to the steaks at the meat counter.)  Back to my artichoke, I've used some washes of red to suggest the roundness of the leaves, and indicate where one leaf tucks in behind another.  It is coming along!

Artichoke - day 3

I made some nice progress today.   Once this painting is done and at the framer's, I'm going to explain why the artichoke is such a cool thing to paint.  The way its leaves are arranged is a perfect example of the Fibonacci sequence.  It is a mathematical explaination of why the leaves grow in perfect opposing spirals in order to maximize the number of leaves that can grow from the stalk.  Sadly, I'm in a pinch for time but I will explain more about this later.  It is the coolest thing and one of the reasons I was drawn to botanical art in the first place!  In the meantime, enjoy!

Artichoke - day 2

I got a good start today with painting the initial washes.  Tough to see on this scan, but I have laid down several layers of a cool lemon yellow, followed by the beginnings of a layer of ultramarine blue.  I am using the drybrush technique, meaning I apply each thin layer of paint to dry paper, rather than allowing the colors to blend and bleed together wet (which is called a 'wet-in-wet technique', by the way).  I'm also not mixing my greens beforehand on my pallette, which is what I normally do.  Thought I'd try something different.  I'm placing a layer of blue over a layer of yellow and letting the transparency of the watercolors do the 'mixing' for me.  I'll admit, it's a bit scary picking up the loaded paintbrush and applying blue paint, hoping the blue and yellow will do their thing on the paper and end up turning the artichoke green.  So far, so good.  The greens of an artichoke are actually quite cool, so I'll be applying even more cool blues to get the right effect.Onward!

Painting Under Pressure

Last month, we attended a charity dinner and auction at our kids' school.  Somewhere between the main course and the dessert, our friend George asked me whether I'd donate a painting to another charity auction event for an organization he's affiliated with.  I should tell you it is a fabulous arts organization and I was honored he asked me.  Was it the wine?  Was it the flattering way he asked?  Was it the fact that he is the president of the board of said organization?  Not sure, but I said yes.  Then I put it in the back of my mind, in the 'After April' file. 

So the other day, we received the invitation to this lovely charity event and auction, with a note of gratitude for my soon-to-be-donated painting.  This is the painting which I had filed away in the 'After April' part of my brain.  That is to say, I haven't done it yet!  As you will recall, I did no painting of any sort in April.  Unfortunately, I don't have a ready stash of framed work.  One day I will, but not yet anyway!  And many of my pieces I can't part with.  Not yet, anyway.  So it is back to the drawing board, literally, to create a fairly quick yet exceptional botanical piece of art that can be donated to a silent auction event on May 23.  Allowing time for framing, I have less than a week to get this done.  No worries.

I'll spare you the thought process and the dead ends and the many ideas I have rejected for one reason or another.  It is going to be a painting of an artichoke.  Solitary. Beautiful greens and burgundys.  The symmetry and geometry always appealing.  Should interest anyone who likes botanical art, and also those looking to fill a blank wall in the kitchen or powder room.  Not too large (obviously!) but not too small either.

So buckle up your seatbelts . . . here we go:

Drawing of Ginger - final

Here's my girl!  I finished.  And I'm happy with the way it turned out.  This definitely captures Ginger in her golden years.  On a happy day at the park.  Watching geese in the reservior and contemplating jumping in after them.  After chasing kite tails and snooping around for birthday picnic leftovers.  Living the good life . . .

back to Ginger

Maybe I should change the name of this blog:  Holly's Monthly Draw!  So embarassing.  I do have fairly good excuses why I haven't sat down to the drawing table in one month . . . two birthdays, one sick kid, two weekend trips to New Haven, extra TLC for children facing Very Large papers and exams, two groups of 40 students here for dinner (pot luck, thank goodness! It's an annual event - we have it down to a science.) , opening up the pool, spring garden chores, making plans for two graduations, . . .  You get the picture.  Nothing out of the ordinary and yet so much packed in to such a short time has meant that I have totally ignored sweet Ginger, looking at me as through a gauzy film on my drawing table.

So today was the day to jump back in.  Yipee!   Drawing with colored pencils is a bit like removing gauze from your subject, come to think of it.  I apply the layers of color so gradually and I try to work the whole piece at the same time, not just section by section.  In this way, my pooch will slowly but surely jump off the page.

The first thing to nail is her eye.  You get the eyes right and the rest is a piece of cake.  If you know Ginger you will agree that I've nailed it so far.  It is fun working with a white subject.  I'm building up shaddows to create her form, taking care to leave the highlighted white bits alone.   This is all I had time for today, but hey, it is better than nothing!