Hydrangeas, 14 x 11, UART dark

Stage 1

Stage 2

Stage 3

This is my third painting. It was begun in my studio on Wilkins and worked on over two consecutive Mondays, then finished in my home studio this morning.  I took the photo in Dupont Circle in 2019 and only after much cropping did I realize what I had.  There were buildings and such behind all of this.

I began this painting quite differently from the last as there was a lot of dark behind the flowers. So I drew outlines with hard pastels instead of doing a lay-in with the side of the pastel.  I don’t really like drawing the outline of leaves as you then tend to fill them in, and that’s not a good way to paint!  But I needed to get something in there.

I used a mix of hard and very soft pastels in this painting, with some of the hard pastels being used for the leaves but definitely not the flowers.  Doing this picture was shear joy!  I used purple and pink and orange Schminckes and Great Americans and I had SUCH a good time!!!  I worked really slowly on each flower, building from darker to lighter and cooler to warmer, using small pieces of color.

But, there were definite challenges–primarily the leaves.  The photo has them all laid out nicely with hard edges and lots of detail.  Not so good for a painting.  I started with them like this, as you can see in Stages 2 and 3, but this morning I worked on bluring the edges by either darkening the leaves or using my finger to smear them.  I think it’s much better now.

For the background, I used Ludwig eggplant and a very dark blue violet over that in places,  It gives it more dimension.  You can see in the earlier stages what the board looks like with some of the “eggplant” on it.  The board is dark but not black, so it’s very easy to cover it with darker color.

I think it’s pretty clear what the center of  interest is.   I loved the little tendril that comes up on the right, which helps bring the eye back up to the main flower.

So will I continue doing this?  Probably.  I like the idea that I can paint different types of subject matter, but all with pastel.  Once you know the basics and how to use your medium.  it all comes down to value and temperature!