Painting in Progress: What is on the Easel at the studio of JoAnn PippinThe Artful Things Gallery is having an exhibit for brides to show them some creative ideas to use in their wedding celebration. I take them some 6” x 6” framed flower prints, which I thought would be nice bridesmaids’ gifts. Kathy and I discuss how I enjoy painting flowers close up, and we begin to develop an idea that I might paint the bridal bouquet as a keepsake for the bride. It starts with a picture. This one is a lovely assembly of pale pink and yellow roses, with purple-and-white-jeweled accents. My goal with this painting is to show light, airy, pastel flowers contrasting with dark, cool, green leaves. So, using the picture, I make my sketch, which will show through in the images of painting stages below. I choose a square format with 3 sides of the bouquet touching the edge. 
I dip my brush in water and used a triad of light, warm primary colors to create a color swatch of the hues I wanted to use in the painting. Permanent Rose, cerulean, and quinacrodone gold are my choices. I know that the rose and the gold will create a lovely coral, a color I see in some of the roses. 
Most of my paintings are not done on stark white paper, but on a light wash of the three basic colors I have chosen to use. Since watercolor is transparent and allows you to look through the current layer to previous layers, covering the paper with this initial wash can have a unifying effect on the final painting. 
Here is the work I did in the initial session of painting. I wanted to work with both shades of roses, and get enough dark into the painting to see if my contrast idea would work. The flowers were fun—I did them almost petal-by-petal, starting at the point where the color is deepest, and wetting my brush to gradually pale out the color. I discovered the combination of cerulean and quinacrodone gold did not create a green dark enough to provide the contrast I wanted, so I introduced some Prussian blue with the gold that made a wonderful dark green. 
I stopped the painting and let it dry to check that the contrast and colors were what I wanted to achieve my goal. I noticed the wash layer had faded the sketch lines enough that I could not see them clearly on some of the leaves and roses, so I sketched the lines in again. Then, I continued to paint more of the flowers and leaves, and some of the purple and small white decorative flowers that had pearl centers, so I could see what effect they were having against the pink. Another stop to look at it dry, and make sure it is working. Stay tuned—the final painting will be available soon… Return from "On the Easel" to Home Page
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