My work table currently has a garden painting on it waiting for me to finish it. It’s close to being finished but you know what they say about close. I tell my son this all the time. Close doesn’t count except for in hand grenades and horseshoes. He hates it when I say that.
So, I thought I’d show you my process photos that I took. It’s rare now that I even remember to take photos. Social media has got us scrambling to create video now for everything. Sigh. A necessary evil. I guess I shouldn’t complain, it’s how I sell most of my art… social media that is.
Garden Painting
I’ll start with my work table. When I paint small paintings like this 10″x8″, I usually work on my table instead of my painting wall. Plus, this is a canvas board, so there’s nothing to hang it with just yet.
First, I roughly sketched out my design on the board. I’m going to paint some bedding plants that I bought from Hastings Plants as they sat waiting for me to plant them.
Then, I blocked in the purple walls. Yes, I actually have purple walls in Studio Gardens! I love purple and it makes a fun backdrop for my flowers.
Next, I added in window reflections and dirt as the background for the flowers. I’m a messy gardener.
Trying to paint quickly, I painted the green leaves. Painting quickly is not something I’m good at. I am working on that, though. Unfortunately, I putz around too much and then my paintings end up looking too tight. At least to me. There’s always room for improvement and I’ve got miles and miles of room to improve.
Now the fun part, the colorful flowers.
And that’s where the garden painting has been left. Like I said, it’s waiting for me to finish it. Really, all I need to do is add a few more leaves and details then hit it with some more highlights. This week we’re supposed to have another heat wave, so it has a good chance of being finished during that.
Also…
Last week we came home from a vacation in West Virginia and I’ll share more about that later.
I have painted another painting since this one called Big Sky. It’s actually for my first public group painting class I’ll be teaching that is happening in Grayville, Illinois on June 28th at Groff Library. I’m pretty excited about it and will post more this week about it. I need to find out if there’s any spots left open, last I checked I had 7 or 8 signed up already!
This garden painting is probably going to be framed up when finished and will be part of a gallery group show I have in September. Once again, I’ll share more on that soon.
Have a great week. I’ll be back soon! – Jaime
← Oh! The irises! / Big Sky painting class ⟶
Learn more about me on the ‘About’ page under the additional links menu. I’m an artist – a painter mostly and an avid gardener. I paint a variety of subjects including birds, koi fish, my gardens, ponds and flowers as well as anything having to do with nature especially trees and tropical scenes. I also enjoy painting abstracts and have started created more and more of them. My most favorite thing to try to achieve in my painting is is mystery and telling mystical stories.
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I always love these posts where you show your process. What do you mean when you say things come out ‘tight’ when you putz around?
Thanks Lisa, I remember your liking the process shots. When I say tight I mean not loose and painterly. Sometimes, I get caught up in trying to paint something to look just like what I’m seeing with my eyes… not my heart. That’s never my initial intention. Unless one is a hyper realistic painter/illustrator then I’d say most of us want to paint with loose broad strokes trying to achieve a feeling and convey emotion to the viewer. A great painting, in my mind anyway, leaves out a certain amount of detail. The brain is able to fill in the missing pieces, it’s a beautiful thing. I like to leave my paintings up to interpretation somewhat and if I include my tightly detailed version there doesn’t leave much room for that. In my opinion, if I wanted to recreate a subject to a t with sharp details and all then I might as well just take a photograph. It’s always my goal, and rarely do I feel I achieve it, that I leave a sense of mystery to the viewer. So that they feel what it is rather than see. I’m not sure if that makes any sense but that’s the best I can explain it. Think loose free strokes indicating images and subjects not cold, hard (tight) facts.
I’m so happy you asked me to explain that. I forget no one else knows what’s going on in my brain! Also, not everyone paints so they might not ever consider this. It’s like finding a piece of art or a written piece that you fall in love with but unless you’re a writer or artist, you may not be able to articulate why you love it.
I love this piece! I love the purple wall you have as well and as a fellow “messy gardener” my wall would also have dirt on it lol. It’s so much fun to see the process of others isn’t it? It reminds me that maybe I should be enjoying my own process more and focused less on the final result. I would love to see how you frame and hang your canvas. I have a few of the flat canvas and I am always hesitant to paint on them because I’m not sure how to hang them. Good luck at your class it sounds like a lot of fun 🙂
Thanks so much Michele! Ah yes, it’s all about the process isn’t it? That feeling of creating… it’s great.
I usually just slide my flat canvas into a frame, nothing fancy. They do make fancy linen mats for them but they’re costly, so I don’t use them. I think they’re called something besides mats though, maybe linen liners?
Oh my purple wall has dirt all over it, ha ha! Thanks for visiting and commenting Michele!