Blog

      Among my favorite flowers to paint are lilies, and yes, I do paint them from life in spite of being somewhat allergic to them. In searching for a topic this month I ran across a note to a student, who like many others, was approaching this subject matter with no small degree of trepidation and frustration. She was wanting to know how I handled the difficulties, and here's my reply:

    "It sounds as if you may have tried painting day lilies. Those are the worst for folding their tents right before your eyes and it's easy to see how they got their name. In my experience, only poppies compare as far as being uncooperative models in that regard. Typically a painting takes me several days to complete, but I head first for any areas that are likely to change quickly. Those are more or less finished in one session --before the edge work sets up to dry. In the case of a larger painting, my objective the first day might be to get the focal area of the bouquet completed but also to have a static object such as a vase established on my canvas. That means both the big value/color statements and the edges are not something I plan to go back and tinker with. Sometimes details or small touches are added later but the goal is to have a well defined object that won't change so that I have something to key my eye to even if the flowers look quite different the next day. One suggestion I would make, since Easter is upon us, is to try a study of Easter Lilies as those will stay more or less the same for several days, and that will give you a longer time to work. Another option to extend the window to work edges before the paint dries is to add a tiny bit of oil of cloves to each color on your palette before you begin."

      The truth is I'm drawn to any flowers with a trumpet because of the terrific opportunities to describe depth. Amaryllis are part of the same family. Daffodils and freesia are like little lilies in that they have that same cone shaped structure and might be less intimidating for those who might want to work their way up to painting their larger cousins. Since spring has arrived and there will be an abundance of trumpet type flowers in our gardens soon, I thought I'd offer a few tips for those of you who might want to try capturing their beauty in paint. 

1) Look for the depth. If you don't see an opportunity to describe depth in your arrangement, it absolutely won't show up magically in your painting. Carefully compare one of the leading edges of a petal out in the light to the softness within the center. That relationship is all important to me when I'm setting up the arrangement as well as throughout the painting process. Not every flower in the arrangement will you be able to see into, but having a few facing toward you in the center of interest will go a long way toward capturing the viewer's attention and compelling them to take a closer look.

2) Don't overplay the color in the center of the flower. Often there can be a relatively intense green or yellow in the center of a white lily, but playing up the color in that area tends to flatten out the flower and make it appear less 3-dimensional in your painting. 

3) To start out, go for flowers that are fairly solid and uniform in color. I don't mean the whole bouquet has to all be the same color but avoid dramatic color changes within each blossom. It will be challenging enough capturing light, shadow and depth on one solid color surface without having abrupt color changes to describe in light and shadow as well.

4) Negative shapes! Instead of looking at the flower, look at the spaces inbetween the petals and you will have a far easier time with your drawing. 

   Here's a fun challenge for those of you brave enough to give lilies a try. Do one drawing where you are looking at the flower and then try a second drawing where you are only concentrating on the shapes between the petals and do your best to get the correct placement of each shape in relationship to one another. It can be a big help to imagine the straight sides of a box that fits the proportions of the flower. Then compare these 2 drawings. Even if you haven't nailed all of these negatives shapes perfectly, my guess is you will have captured the essence of that flower in a more successful way. That's because you don't have the preconceived idea in your mind of what a lily looks like getting in the way of seeing what is really in front of you. Good luck!

    In the painting above, this is the lily on the right. The areas shaded in red represents the negative shapes around this lily. As I was painting I was concentrating as much on these shapes as I was the flower itself.