Painting 101:

To make a floral still life more interesting

by Tissa Hewavitharane

Many problems arise in your floral painting subjects. If your painting subject happens to be a vase of flowers now comes the moment of truth.

You are confronted with an object and a sheet of pristine white paper. Do you panic and dive straight into the painting, hoping it will turn out well? Or do you plan your composition calmly and rationally so as to get the maximum impact out of your subject? All too often compositional decisions are made without sufficient thought, and without exploring all the creative possibilities. This applies particularly when the subject is a simple one such as a vase of flowers. The inexperienced artist will often go for the conventional approach and place the subject squarely in the centre of the paper, surrounded by a plains background. While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with this set-up, it doesn't always make an interesting picture because it's too 'safe'.

The solution

Floral still lifes offer you exciting opportunities for creating dynamic compositions. Don't limit yourself to approaches that are safe and comfortable experiment with unusual viewpoints; try out different back grounds and explore the potential colour interactions. It is the uniqueness of your point of view that will make people take notice of your pictures. Notice the floral arrangement how the bright red colour of the blooms are contrasted against a simple deffective device of a pale background, yet one which many beginners would not think of using. Remember there is no reason a floral still life has to consist of a single vase of flowers all on its own.

Be flexible

When planning a floral still life, make it a rule never to let your first compositional decision be your last. Try to see beyond mere 'things' a vase of flowers resting on a table, whatever look at your subject as a series of shapes, colours and patterns that must link together harmoniously. These shapes, colours, and patterns are also the words with which you will speak to the viewer, to choose and arrange them carefully.

The flowers painted in this floral arrangement Wet-in wet mixtures of ultra marine burnt sienna are used with bright red to create richness and depth of colour in the shadows with the dark colour. Notice also how the artist has chosen a vertical format for the flowers thrusting diagonally upwards to the top edge of the paper. Observe the artist has moved the glass jug away from the centre of the paper, thus creating a dynamic visual tension between the subject and the surrounding white space.

Yet, the expanse of stark white paper also provides an important release, and balances the weight of the glass jug and flowers. Had the artist placed the flower vase in the centre of the paper much of the energy of the printing would have been lost.

Setting up

Try to keep the arrangement of your flowers simple and informal. Stylised on symmetrical grouping tend to look stiff and unnatural in a painting.

Most of us have experienced the frustration of setting out to capture the elusive beauty of flowers only to be disappointed with our ham-fisted attempts! Arrange the blooms so that they overlap each other, and include profile and back views of some of them. This add variety of shape as well as accentuating the three dimensional impression. A vase full of multi-coloured flowers is not always a good idea, because the colours fight each other and destroy any impression of delicacy. It's far better to choose flowers of the same colour, or a harmonious arrangement of closely related colours.

Mixing colours

Flowers and clarity of colours are essential in flower painting, so you must be sure you are familiar with your colours and now they mix together.

Flowers may be colourful, but you don't need a vast array of colours to paint. In fact a simple palette often produces the best results, because it is likely to be more harmonious. When choosing your colours, avoid the more opaque one such as yellow ochore in favour of the really transparent ones such as alizarin crimson, lemon yellow and rose dose.

When mixing colours, don't use more than two or three pigments, otherwise the colour will turn muddy and opaque. For maximum vibrancy, build up the forms of petals and leaves, with the glazes of warm and cool colour that allow light to reflect off the paper. Flowers are natural living things, and should be painted as such.

Flowers are very delicate in colouring, so try not to over work them too much. www.tissahewavitarane.com