Inspiration and practical advice for aspiring realist artists
When I first started painting – or at least, when I decided that I was going to try to learn properly – I spent the least time I could on the palette.
I wanted to be on the painting as much as possible. I thought that’s where the action was, where a painting succeeded or failed.
But I was wrong. In fact, the opposite is true.
The more I paint, the more I realise the importance of chroma.
I know that, for many people, chroma isn’t really something they consider much as they paint.
Until I dscovered Munsell, I didn’t think about it much either.
But lately, I’ve been giving as much attention to chroma as I have to value. And the more I do that, it seems to me, the better my paintings become.
This painting was the last one I managed to fit in before daffodil season finished here in the Cotswolds. Just when I was warming up to them.
They were fast becoming a favourite subject, but the countryside around here will yield more subjects as the year progresses. The roses will be here soon!
Who paints dandelions?
I’d never really considered them as a subject for a painting before. In fact, I don’t think I’d ever really looked very closely at them before.
But one of the wonderful things about painting something is the time you have to spend with it.
Yes, more daffodils!
This piece was painted live over two sessions. I’ve added recordings of the streams below.
Of course, being on lock-down at the moment means kids at home, and my littlest, who’s six, finds the studio especialy fascinating! He features quite a lot on the first stream.
Daffodils and Willow Pattern, Oil on Panel, 9.5 x 7 inches Currently at Auction I’m beggining to realise that I’ve fallen in love with painting daffodils. It’s partly because they’re such a challenge to paint. Keeping the chroma high and trying to show all the nuances of hue, all the slightly differing yellows, painting the
The way I’m painting flowers now is a very good example of two things:
1. Painting representationally isn’t painting what you see
(Because usually, you can’t.)
2. How the Munsell big book can help you mix more expressive colour
Flowers are hard to paint.
Yellow flowers are particularly difficult.
It’s the shadows.
You see, especially on high chroma flowers, it’s often impossible to get high enough chroma in the shadows. In paint, we lose chroma quicky as we go down the value scale.
When spring comes to this part of the Cotswolds, the landscape is transformed.
There are two flowers that are responsible for this change, daffodils and oxlips. I love them both, they’ve come to mean spring to me since we moved to this lovely part of the countryside.
I’ve been itching to paint some since I spotted the first one a few days ago.
Tightness in paintings equals a lack of emotion and expression. Tightness is bad.
Looseness equates to freedom, expression and emotion. Looseness is good.
You hear this a lot.
Actually (and although I’m painting more loosely now) I couldn’t disagree more.
