“Be Patient.
Respond to every call that excites your spirit.”
Rumi
Patience is an attribute that every botanical artist needs
to have. Choosing to paint from life means that we are very much at the whims
of nature, constantly marking the seasons and watching the weather. It’s not
unusual for a botanical artist to set aside a painting for a year whilst they
wait for a plant to bloom once more or a fruit to ripen.
In my garden I have a beautiful laburnum tree (Laburnum anagyroides) that for a
few weeks each year, fills my garden with cascades of glorious golden flowers
and a wonderful perfume that sends bees into rapturous joy. Every year I
promise myself that I will paint it but time has always been against me.
Last
year I managed to do a small study for the sketchbook exchange and I promised
myself that this year, I would be ready!
So I have been patiently watching my garden with a growing
sense of anticipation. I have a gorgeous piece of honey coloured natural calf
vellum which will really set off those golden flowers.
Whilst I waited, I decided to do a few small studies to hone
my palette. Yellow is a tricky colour to paint. It can slip from glowing to
drab in a few washes, which makes varying the tones quite difficult. Some
artists achieve wonderful results by doing a monochromatic study first in greys
and then painting a wash of yellow over it. Others mix their yellows with tiny
bits of purple to create shadow tones.
Personally I prefer to keep my colours
as clean as possible and use the large range of yellows available to create the
tones. That said, a few shadow colours, purple-grey or green will slip into the
mix towards the end if I felt it is needed.
There is no right or wrong way. If it works, do it!
So first to make a huge yellow colour chart. Yes, I really
do have all those colours, and yes, the Daniel Smith dot chart makes me want to
whip out that credit card and invest in a few more.
However I resist the urge
and finally decide on my favourites of winsor lemon, winsor yellow and new gamboge
as my basic yellows.
My biggest struggle is always with greens, especially on
vellum where opaque paints can feel a bit like kicking a lead-filled football
around a pitch. So I needed to find a good transparent green mix. Fortunately
my good friend Sigrid Frensen mentioned how nice turquoise was with
quinacridone gold, both wonderfully transparent.
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| Winsor Blue Green with Quinacridone Gold ... a fabulous mix! |
So having played around with
several mixes, I settled on Winsor Blue-Green with quinacridone and a little
transparent yellow. I have had Winsor Blue Green for years but always ignored it
as it was just too bright for any of my mixes. The Quin gold tames it
beautifully.
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| Playing with green mixes |
Of course it is not just botanical artists who revisit
favourite subjects to paint, artists have done this for centuries. Each time they
paint their subject, they discover something new. It allows them to develop their
techniques, their composition and their colour palette.
Inspiration stimulates creativity.
My imagination has been caught! Bring on the blossoms.
“The glow of inspiration warms us and it is a holy rapture”
Ovid
