Sunday, January 31, 2010

Artichoke and Gerbers studies

My cousin's artichokes in her veggie garden had gone to flower so she picked a few for a vase in her kitchen. They were huge and I fell in love with the lovely fluffy purple tops against the glorious green hard spikes, so she gave them to me to paint.

 
Artichoke Flower Studies 


  
The inspiration


The flower store was offering 3 pots of Gerber's on special so I purchased a baby pink one, a cerise pink and a lovely orange pot. Here are a couple of studies of the orange one I did..... I have studied the sketches and there is definitely some room for improvement here, I'd like to do others with more lost edges around the petals.



 
Gerber Studies

7 comments:

Melissa Fischer said...

That artichoke is so cool, Debbie! I have never seen one flowering. I really like your orange Gerber with the loose, washy orange blossoms in the background, What orange did you use?

Debbie said...

Thanks Melissa, The flowering artichokes were huge... I haven't seen them so large, ever! They were best eaten whilst my cousin was away on holiday, but no one picked them so they went to flower. Quite a spectacular flower.
The orange Gerber was done with Cad Scarlet and a touch of Cad Yellow, both strong pigments so I watered them both down a bit.

Melissa Fischer said...

Thanks, Debbie! I'll have to get some of that Cad Scarlet next time I make an order.

JANE MINTER said...

no wonder you couldn't resist painting the artichokes ...wonderful ..what size is the painting ? lovely gerbers like the dark blue bg

Debbie said...

Thank you Jane..... this is just a small study A4 sheet.... but would LOVE to do a larger one.

Maree Clarkson said...

A lovely sketch of the Artichoke Debbie, and your Orange Gerbera is absolutely beautiful - no improvement necessary there!

new mexico mtn girl - CheyAnne Sexton said...

just a wonderful style you have. I found you thru Watercolors blog where you gave an award for her 'Poppy plus' painting. Thank you for all your inspiration. Love the artichoke painting. Gorgeous
peace n abundance,
CheyAnne @
http://cheyannesexton.etsy.com