Developing tulips

The top left tulip and bottom right are both the same type, but the top left one has developed and the colour is coming out. The other still has a green tinge. The top left is a different, more rounded type, but there is a yellow throat to it. Finally the bottom left was a larger pale pink flower. I’m loving the way they are developing.

A few tulips

The joy of tulips. Now a normal spring flower, but a couple of centuries ago they were wildly expensive in the Netherlands. Tulip mania or fever took over and single bulbs went for sale for thousands of guilders. Tulips were getting a virus that made their flowers ‘break’ or go from plain colours to striped ones. Probably a bit like the red and white striped ones above.

I’m loving the wrinkled flower buds that are slightly green but have slight red markings. As they grow and open the colours can change and develop.

These are outside our house, on the pavement. I’m so pleased no one has touched them, some years we have had all of our daffodil flower heads broken off so I feel luck the display has been left alone. Now I’ve got to find new plants to create a succession of blooms later in the year.

Background

I’m playing with oil colours in Artrage. I wanted to create a geological, rocky sort of image, like a slab of slate. Then I decided to split it into a collage, like five pieces of cake. It was interesting to create an abstract pattern, and I love the blues and reds as they smudged together. If I had oil paints I would try and recreate this as a real painting. I don’t know how I would do it though.

Going to a new home

Autumn painting. A woman with a red umbrella walks through a damp and misty forest with leaves scattered around. I worked from a photo someone lent me so I don’t know who’s photo it was. If there is a copyright issue I will delete this post.

I had problems with the body length and the length of the legs, trying to get them and the arms in proportion. I had to play with the colours and shadows to try and get a realistic light on the figure. I also tried to make the trees bluer to send them back into the distance.

Delamere

Third painting. I used the reference photo less and added leaves on the left hand side that were further towards the centre than was on the original photo. The lady who lent me the photograph told me this was taken at Delamere forest, which I think is in Cheshire.

I tried to emphasise the blues in the background to give it a distant feeling. Then I emphasised the reds and greens to ring them to the fore. The leaf litter was fun to paint trying to shape it and add light shining through the leaves onto the ground. It’s a small acrylic on canvas.

Mirror.

Seen today, a mirror in a shop, reflected branches. And the bevelled edge was shining with the spectrum. I had walked to the shop and on the way it poured with rain. The sun broke through behind me and I took a photo of a rainbow. But the camera did not save the image because I turned my phone off too quickly. So when I saw a similar effect in the bevelled edges I tried to capture those colours. Lots of things inspire me x

Seven years

Seven years ago I created this. I can’t remember exactly how. But it just popped up on my Facebook memories. It’s definitely my style, pattern and colours. I do love the idea of creating something like this, completely abstract using some elements from nature. I don’t know if there are enough pixels to make it work as a print. I’m not sure how many dpi it is.