Looking at Flowers

Seeing like a painter means practicing a different way of looking at things. First you see a flower with a certain shape and color – what most people would see. Then you start looking carefully at each petal to see the colors within the colors. A white flower could also be yellow, pink, or orange in the lighted “warm” areas and blue, lavender, or green in the shaded “cool” areas, for example. Often by seeing a hint of color you get the idea of exaggerating or emphasizing it to make the flower more dramatic and interesting in your painting. The leaves also hold many different colors within their green – brown, purple, myriad shades of green and white highlights are all present. You have to choose which colors to paint more brightly and which to ignore or downplay.

When planning, notice the big shapes of the flowers first. These help you to build a strong composition. Within the big shapes are little shapes of color with soft and hard edges that create their own set of abstract patterns and designs, as well as define the shape of the flowers as three-dimensional forms. How do you link it all together? What do you paint? What do you not paint? All your decisions will shape the final painting. The longer you observe your subject, the more you’ll see, and the more complex and interesting a painting you’ll be able to create.

This Calla Lily was blooming beside my house last week. I painted it in acrylic on watercolor paper.