Thirty days hath September - Day Two - Sunflowers

A bit of an awakening today when I realised that the pieces that I produce for this event can't be altered, they can't be put away if I don't like them or used for something else in the future. They have to be seen in all their glory and if I don't think they work, then that is just tough. I'm hoping that this will be a good thing, that I will be able to look back at the collection and see the progression over the thirty days and make plans for my work in the future. OR I will hate them and want to cry - such is the life of an artist!

Anyhoo, today was a lovely workshop at my studio - Sunflowers using metallics - and I thought you might like to see what we did during the session.

 Using Saunders Waterford 140lb NOT, we sketched out our composition leaving space to the right for an interesting background.

Metallic Oil Pastels were applied to act as a resist to the watercolour that we would be adding later.

A background was added using Daniel Smith's Cobalt Teal Blue, Perylene Green and Amethyst. A little rag rolling was done with kitchen roll and table salt applied for texture.

Introducing Rich Green Gold in to our colour palette, we added the leaves at the back of the flower by double loading the brush with Perylene Green too.

I felt like experimenting with a new colour today so I suggested Azo Yellow alongside the Rich Green Gold and we use also used it mixed with the Amethyst for the dark centre.

The finishing was done with further darks, metallic oil pastels a bit of Schminke Aqua Bronze powder for pizazz. After everyone had gone home, I had a good, hard look at the finished piece and worked in a few highlights with a pastel pencil.

The piece is now up on an easel in the studio and considering I've not painted for a couple of weeks, it's not a bad first one back and I will pop over to the website now to add it to the auction listing. Tomorrow we have a big open day here at the studio with the 2018 class launch but I will also be taking part (and encouraging others) to have a go at the 'Inch' project. All will be revealed in tomorrow's blog. See you there....