Looking for Winter Inspiration: A Review

I often hear people saying 'there's nothing to paint at this time of year!' So thought I'd write about  some ideas for subject material from my previous work! Perhaps it will help to inspire those of you who may feel stuck in a rut at this time of year.
It's not all brown and dead stuff either! Here's my top 10 selection of painting and drawing subjects that can be found in the depths of winter? All of these works were completed during the winter months or from material collected out of season.

Much material can be collected in late October and you can keep the colour for a while if you keep them in plastic bags in the fridge or just dry them.....but there's much more to be found! 

First of all, its a good idea to collect leaves, seeds and all manner of material when you can during the rest of the year, store them in a dry place and they'll keep you going for years! I love brown and decaying material, so make no apologies for their inclusion. But there's lots of colour to be found too.
Of course it depends on where you live to some extent, but there's no need to resort photographs when there's real stuff to be found, I always try to work from live subjects, using photos just for additional reference, it's so much easier when you can handle the subject to get a feel for it's texture and turn it around to understand the form, and, play with the lighting.

1.Dried Leaves and Leaf Skeletons
Maybe an obvious subject but these are some of my favourites
 

I love old oak leaves, I had these in a box for around 3 years, they're perfect if you're learning to paint leaves and although not green there are lots of colours to play with and you can examine the leaf structure without fear of the leaf curling up or withering.

Here's a work in progress on on vellum, I managed to keep the colour by keeping it in a bag for several weeks. Mixing the rich reds, browns and golden colours is achieved with primary colours from a limited palette.

Holly Leaf skeleton on vellum

Leaf skeletons can always be found in leaf litter

2. Evergreens and winter garden material
Plenty evergreen leaves on plants and trees, holly and ivy are always nice and usually there are some that are still hanging on in a state of semi senescence. Also cyclamen, primulas and sweet williams are easily found as are winter pansies. it's nearly the end of January, and my pulmonaria and primulas are already popping up and things are starting to come to life again already.

Why not work on practicing year round green leaves in your sketchbook....there are plenty of evergreens here in the UK, holly, ivy and laurel is everywhere, plus many more.

Winter pansies are easy to grow

3. Seed pods and pine cones
Another absolute favourite! who could ever get tired of these. Ive got a gorgeous Cardoon with the fluffy seeds popping out just waiting to be painted! Throw some together for a table top composition....there's no end of possibilities!

Found material, seed pods from Spain and Iris foetidissima, sketchbook studies

There's beauty everywhere, even as this this Scots Thistle seed head falls apart

Why not try a different medium. I'm rather fond of graphite work in winter. Scaled up Scots Thistle Seedhead....before it fell apart

You chance to get to grips with a real Fibonacci sequence

4.Twigs, bark and lichens
If you feel colour deprived, there are some beautiful subtle colours in these  subjects!

Some found twigs, bark and lichens demonstrate the variety of colours and textures to be found

More sketchbook studies, the little withered hawthorn berry adds a jewel of colour to this collection of found materials from Scotland

5. Bulbs, corms and tubers
You can always find some bulbs, and if like me you forgot to plant them, there can be colourful shoots too. There are the ones you can grow in glass too if you want, waiting for my amaryllis to flower at the moment.

Bulbs can be just as interesting as their flowers

Sprekelia bulb, an exercise in using many glazes of colour

Bulb painting process

Sprouting bulbs are great subjects for learning how to draw and paint form

Love the tangled roots most of all!

6.Glass house
Lots to be found in botanic garden glass houses and some are happy to accommodate artists ....if you ask nicely! I don't seem to have any winter studies of my own but lots of orchids can usually be found and many other exotic flowers and cacti

 7. Supermarket vegetables, flowers and fruit
For those feeling colour deprived the supermarket can be a treasure trove of subjects! In the past far less material would have been available - now it's global! from turnips to tulips and pomegranates to pineapples. I've painted so many things from supermarkets and painting often dominates my shopping choices.

A supermarket turnip, I kept it for a few weeks to allow it to sprout leaves and it even flowered for me! You can do the same with beets and other vegetables.

It's easy to grow new leaves on root vegetables, just sit them in water and leaves will sprout

Tulips in an array of colours are always available at supermarkets. Here's a work in progress in the sketchbook. Write to the grower if you cant find the name of the variety.

No shortage of colour here in this pack of mixed chili peppers

Every botanical artists should paint at least one pineapple! winter could be the time as they're always available in the shops

Pineapple details

8. Pot plants and florists
Again, many tropical plants, orchids, calla, bromeliads and jasmine etc.

This large painting was composed from rearranging a couple of pots of Calla lilies into a more aesthetically pleasing arrangement

And Calla's come in a wide variety of colours

I managed to buy freesias from the florist and some bulbs from a garden centre, so put them together as a study page

9. Insects, feathers and shells
Not botanical but fun to paint and great practice, and another example of why collecting is always worthwhile

Collections come in useful. Being trained in biology, I collected skulls, feathers and insects for years but you don't have collect your own and most natural history museums have insect collections, contact your local museum and ask if you can come in to study them.

Three British Butterflies on manuscript vellum

The stages of painting butterflies, lots of dry brush and detail, using size 1 brushes

Peacock feathers on Kelmscott vellum

10. Fungi
Also not in the plant kingdom but lots of interesting textures and colours. 

Lots of lovely fungi, not a subject that I often paint but always another option and they pop up everywhere around my home!

Oh and one more! number 11. Travel! yes you can find material elsewhere and take your sketchbook!  That's what I've been doing this last year or two, which is partly why I've neglected my blog for nearly 6 months! I had a great 2016 travelling, painting and meeting lots of wonderful people.  I'm back home for a while now and will catch up with all the unfinished posts

Feet up! From my train travels across the USA in October

 

My sketchbook from Australia travels 2015

See there really are lots of subjects! what there is a lack of, is enough time to paint them all.
Thank you for reading, it's also been a bit of a review for me too. Looking forward to many new works and blog posts in 2017!

It Starts with....Nothing!

After a great trip to Dublin the other week I felt enthusiastic about work and was looking forward to preparing two paintings for the SBA annual exhibition, titled, 'In Pursuit of Plants'  but what to paint?
Completing any painting is never without some form of struggle. It starts with nothing.... a blank page, or skin in this case, and slowly builds. There never seems to come a point when it's an easy process, some days go well, which is the best feeling.... and others don't, which is the worst ......... it can be extremely frustrating at times, especially with a deadline looming!

I decided to complete two paintings which were prepared for and planned last year., both are of Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra' ( below).  

Work in progress (19th Feb), Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra'
 on Kelmscott vellum, size 72 x 47 cm

It seems like a suitable subject,  F. imperialis first arrived in Britain from Persia in the sometime after the late 1500's, it is native to Turkey and also found in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan, where it grows on scrub and rocky slopes.
Several cultivars of the plant are available and 'Rubra' is one of the older forms. Last year I purchased three different plants, the above plus Aurora and the yellow Lutea, all are very beautiful but smell terrible. The leaves are sprouting at the moment but unfortunately it won't flower until April so the work will have to be completed using last years reference and studies. I spent a considerable amount of time working on this 'foxy' smelling member of the Lily family last year so feel fairly comfortable with working in this way on this occasion.

The blank skin...this has to become a painting! The whole skin, Kelmscott vellum from William Cowley. It cost about £130 for this piece so I don't want it to make too many mistakes

 Both paintings are on vellum,  one is painted on a whole skin and has so far proved a very difficult painting. The skin has lots of imperfections which I rubbed it down with pumice but it still hassome flaws, nevertheless it's a very nice looking piece of vellum. The smaller piece, in contrast, is very smooth. This is just the nature of vellum, every piece is different, which is also part of the charm. Working on vellum is always time consuming, usually with plenty of error,  invariably I end up removing some parts and re-doing them. Recently I painted some small works on vellum to get back into the swing of it but these two works are considerably more challenging, largely due to the rich colours and large size. I knew that the darker green leaves would be difficult so decided to start there.

Beginnings, I always put the stem in lightly first with a tea wash, followed by the leaves, I like to make sure the stem is smooth and it's an integral part of a painting, a bad stem ruins a painting! The initial washes on the leaves are more of a yellow biased green mix, using Indanthrene blue Winsor yellow and a small amount of  Permanent rose

These tricky leaves, rotate around the stem in whorls. After the initial washes I vary the ratio of the green mix from the initial yellow bias to a more blue biased mix in the darker greens. I also used some Danial Smith Verditer blue to push the highlights forward and some paynes grey for the darkest shadows.

Painting is a very personal thing, I spend a lot of time on my own with a painting. I've been working on this one for days and not getting very far, in fact I've hardy been out of the flat for over a week and find I need this concentrated working time to 'tune in' to a larger painting. When it's not going so well I have to try to resist getting up, making endless cups of coffee, and general procrastinating, such as checking Facebook and emails every 5 minutes etc. this behaviour must to be curtailed if  I'm to complete on time but this week already I've watched 4 films, drank nearly 3 bottles of wine and chomped through a whole bag of wine gums!  I've painted and removed several leaves already. Today I had to make progress and with just a couple of days left the pressure is on! At first I can't decide on the right brush for the job and frustrating little things happen that make me want to walk away - the worst is the little bits of hair that break from the brush and weld themselves to the vellum! or the annoying little flick of paint at the edge of the brush stroke. Anyone who paints on vellum will no doubt know what I'm talking about ....but I put the headphones on and after a few hours it starts to fall into place.
I don't want to finish the leaves before putting the flowers in so move on to the flowers as soon as I establish the basics with the greens. Ideally I should have put the green crown in but for some reason I didn't.

The first wash in and adding detail. Cobalt Violet  and Verditer Blue both ( Daniel Smith). For the vivid orange, Transparent Yellow and Scarlet lake plus some Daniel Smith Transparent Pyroll Orange. This image from the second painting, which is a simpler study of just the flower head with pollinating bees.

I'd worked out most of the colours for the painting last year but decided to try a few additions from the Daniel Smith range in addition to my usual W&N pans. It's really important to work with  transparents colours if possible, particularly on vellum, because the opaques tend to be flat and heavy looking in anything other than an initial wash. This bright orange colour will require a significant amount of building up and I want to maintain that brightness and luminosity.

A messy business! I usually use Winsor & Newton pans but decided to try a few of the Daniel Smith paints. More so on the larger painting. They have some very nice colours but I have to say that I prefer the W & N pans for the dryer style of working required on vellum, I found too much gum arabic present in the Daniel Smith paints but the colours are good, albeit slightly unnecessary.

Building up the dry brush work, adding some Perylene maroon to the palette for the rich red/ orange

Adding the bees!

On the smaller work I decided to add bees. It's one of the things I'd noticed about the plant last year....the bees and flies love it! F. imperialis is also known as 'Mary's Tears', this is because of the huge nectaries, hence the appeal to pollinators! Last year I'd taken the potted plant into the house one morning to paint it ,when all of a sudden two large bumble bees emerged from the flowers and flew around the kitchen in panic before escaping through the patio doors.

'Mary's Tears' Huge nectaries appeal to potential pollinators

 Another interesting  story about this plant is that it is also pollinated in the UK by Blue Tits,  the birds can often be seen scurrying up and down the stems! This is the most northerly observation of a bird pollinated plant (ornithophily), and the only example in Europe , so is of some significance. In April I hope to be able to paint the yellow  Fritillaria ' Lutea' with a blue tit. I've never seen this portrayed in a painting before.
Here's a bit of further reading for those interested. There are a number of research journals  regarding this subject, (this is a downloadable pdf.). For more general observations on pollination  click here.

Blue Tit, Parus caeruleus. A pollinator of  Fritillaria imperialis. Image copyright WIkimedia Commons

 

A study from last year F. imperialis 'Lutea' a subject for a painting later this year

I'm afraid that writing this blog is yet another form of procrastination, so I'd better get back to the job.
Will the paintings be finished on time?....probably. Will they be acceptable...I don't know!
But are we ever really satisfied with our painting?  probably not....but that's all part of the challenge and the fun!

Snake's Head Fritillary.....an old favourite

I know I've blogged about painting Fritillaria meleagris before but I do like it!.... and so do lots of other artists, most notable of course are Rory McEwen's paintings, which probably can't be bettered, but also Elizabeth Blackadder, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Pandora Sellars and many more have painted Fritillaries.

At the beginning of the month I decided to concentrate my efforts on this flower and have a number of pots to keep me going for the next few weeks. Over the last week several studies have been produced - although they are intended to be work towards a series of paintings....I haven't even started the actual paintings despite the fact that they're due to be exhibited during April! But today I painted this larger study ( x2). 

Study of flower head x2 in size ( 22 x 26 cm)

I even painted Fritillaries as part of the Nature Trail Sketchbook Exchange project this week.

Nature Trail Sketchbook pages for this month, showing a white and double headed forms. 

There's something unique about the colour and pattern in this plant, the colour varies between flowers and changes with the light, and, as the flower ages. The stems and leaves are elegant with beautiful curves and the hanging flowers are delicate. The tepals have the most interesting nectaries, which creates the distinctive square darker coloured 'shoulder'. A look inside the flower reveals the glistening nectary on the reverse of the 'shoulder'.
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The petal showing the outside with the shoulder (top) and the inside with the nectary (bottom)

 F. meleagris is a member of the Liliaceae family, which grows in damp grassland and meadows. In Britain it is often referred to as a native species, however this is disputed by botanists, it was not recorded growing wild until 1736, prior to that it had only been recorded as a garden plant, so is now believed to be an introduced species and garden escapee which became naturalized. Although it was once commonplace, it was picked excessively and sold in markets as cut flower. Much of its habitat was lost after WWII due to the agricultural 'improvement' of the land, when ancient meadows were ploughed and turned over to food production. The plant is now deemed nationally scarce in Britain and only a few wild sites remain, including Magdalen College Oxford, Cricklade and the village of Ducklington.

It's a lovely flower to paint, the best approach is the lay down the washes first to form the basic shape of the flower. The colours range from cooler purples to fairly bright reds in places.  I used various combinations of Permanet Alizarin Crimson, Permanent Magenta and Permanent Carmine. In the really warm red areas I added a little Scarlet Lake. The warmer red shows through more prominently in some areas, such as near to the petal tips - also where the light shines through the back of petals. Yet in other light the colour is a cool purple.

Once the form is established the chequered pattern can be added on top, but remember that the pattern follows the contours of the petals and is also lighter or darker depending on where the light hits the flower. I mention this because I've seen patterns added on top of a form without enough consideration of the effect of light and shade on the pattern. 

I used Ultraviolet in the shadows and added Payne's Grey on the 'shoulder' and for the darks. A small amount of Manganese Blue Hue was used on the 'light' areas at the top of the petals and around the highlight on the shoulder. 

The first stages: washes are laid first to create form, the the pattern is added next.

Building up the pattern from light to dark,  pinks and purples but keeping a close eye on the light.

The stems are slender and elegant, they should be carefully observed because the way that the stem bends under the weight of the flower gives a very specific look. To keep the stem clean looking I draw slightly outside the area that I intend to paint and paint inside the line, this avoids painting over pencil lines, the pencil can be erased afterwards. The curve should be smooth and painted in flowing continuous strokes. Nothing looks worse than thick uneven stems on flowers like this. The colour of the stems is variable some are green and others have some red/brown in them but all are fairly light with a 'blue /grey' appearance. I use a mix for the basic green of colours with high light values. Manganese Blue Hue plus Winsor Lemon was used and a small amount of Permanent Alizarin Crimson added. I try as far as possible to use the same reds in a green mix as those used in the flower, this I believe gives continuity to the painting. 

   Above: detail of the stem and darker 'shoulder' areas

And then I came to a field where the springing grass
Was dulled by the hanging cups of fritillaries
Sullen and foreign looking, the snaky flower
Scarfed in dull purple, like Egyptian girls
Camping among the furze, staining the waste
With foreign colour, sulky-dark and quaint

from 'The Land' by Vita Sackville-West (1927)

And here's a late addition to the post, not quite finished but painted this morning