Orange Gladioli

Gladioli are hard to captute in photos as they are so long

The  orange Gladioli in my garden started appearing several years after I moved to this house. I wondered if the previous owners had tried to kill them. They first appeared as small flowerless plants but they have grown stronger each year.

They have just started flowering. It is good timing as most of the Hibiscus plants in the garden have stopped flowering for the winter.

Nana's honeypot

Honeypot with Flowers
61 x 61 cm (20 x 20 ")

Whether a painting is successful has a lot to do with composition and if you get the composition right before you start, painting must be so easy. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to pre-compose paintings. Instead, try as I might, they grow organically amid much tearing out of hair and rubbing off of colour.

This painting is an example.  I bought some lilies but they were in bud and all but one dropped off the stem before they opened.  The only bloom in the garden was a giant orange hibiscus flower but I picked it and put it on the vase with the lily. This was not a flower combination I would have thought of painting  but I had a square canvas on the easel I wanted to try as a change from oblong and before I had a chance to reconsider, I began to paint these awkward flowers. I added my Nana's little honey pot to give the flowers some sort of counterweight. I have had the honey pot for years and am fond of it even though, like most of her ceramic objects, it bears the marks of robust family wear and tear. 

Getting to the flowers and honey pot was not so simple though. I changed the vase (the original was rectangle glass), I changed the pot (before the honey pot I tried a pottery sugar bowl), I put a cloth under the vase then removed it and I almost painted over the whole thing with Gesso several times. Now I have decided to leave it for a few months to see if it grows on me.

Hibiscus

before

 The Hibiscus painting has started to change (again). The vase was so lonely there on it's green shelf so I added an oil-stick word, a using  method I learned from the wonderful and inspiring Michael Taylor.

after

Brian Wood ceramic (3)

Brian Wood jug

The painting of Brian Wood's ceramic jug has gone through many iterations (see two of them below). I tried putting several items in the picture with the jug but none of them worked. The jug sat there throughout, surviving the several over-paintings. It is a very determined jug.

Finally I decided to make the painting a colour study and now I rather like it.

I painted some pink Hibiscus flowers in a vase with similar colours. I like using a similar colour combination over two or more paintings as they look good on the wall together. 

The vase with Hibiscus flowers originally sat on a draped white cloth and there were two nectarines in the picture. Once again the nectarines didn't survive the painting process.

Vase of pink Hibiscus flowers.

In the meantime the nectarines have all been consumed but they are still in season so today I bought some more.

The next painting is going to be of a plate of nectarines.

Ceramic pots with hibiscus

Ceramic pots with Hibiscus

This is the same painting at different stages - the background morphed several times in the painting. First it was light, then the shelf under the pots was dark (bottom photo), then the background was all dark. I painted in some foliage in a vase at one stage, then painted it over. Nothing seemed to work with these pots.

Finally I added a Hibiscus from the garden.

 I have now rearranged the shelf next to my easel so there is enough space for me to create an arrangement before painting it. It's my little 'Margaret Olley' corner. I should have done it before I started my current spree of painting domestic items, but better late than never.

I have put my recent 'porcelain paintings' online at artsmitten.com.