“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” ....Oscar Wilde

Friday 5 August 2016

Experimenting... Wildflower Meadow... PPF

Now this is actually beyond a Tail-End Charlie entry into the Paint Party Friday link... I've almost missed the boat! 
As usual I thought I'd manage to do at least one piece of artwork during the week, but alas this morning I realised that it was actually Friday and I hadn't got anything to show for the week! 
Where did that week go?
It was actually the bin men arriving that reminded me... so after dashing the wheelie bins out into the lane at record speed, I decided that I would make some time today for art.
I had seen an artist a few weeks ago, using a technique that I've been wanting to try.
So I decided today was the day to give it a go....
This is only the draft piece hence the substandard paper. 
I just wanted to see if I could make the same effect that the artist had. 
It's a wildflower meadow by the way just in case it's not clear.
Firstly, I wet the paper (hence the wrinkles and curves... see I told you it wasn't the best quality paper)
Then I started to paint a sunrise. 
As you can see... not very well at this stage, but please bare in mind as I waited for it to dry I had been nipping in and out of the garden to tidy a few borders and pull yet more weeds.
It's not the best way to produce a masterpiece, but it's the best I could do.
This incessant rain makes the weeds grow like triffids!
This was only a trial so at least I was able to do something, which is better than nothing at all.
Next I mixed various colours and flicked the paint onto the paper. 
Then I added some details to give the effect of wildflowers.
The wildflowers are so important in helping to keep the bee pollution thriving and is so topical at the moment.
We are actually thinking about having our own bee hive because we already have our own meadow (it's actually a patch of garden left to whatever wants to grow ie wild flowers and weeds) so we're almost there. 

I'll hopefully be linking up as usual with Kristin and Eva over at Paint Party Friday if I'm not too late.
Thanks ladies for hosting such an inspiring linky.

Plus this week is the second week of Alexandra's Sunday Sketches from the UK. 
Alexandra has moved over from the US to England for a temporary period and she wanted her link to Sunday Sketches to reflect that it is being hosted from England.
She had a competition to design a logo to reflect the move and I'm thrilled to say she picked my design. 
Please tap on the logo in my side bar to nip across to see lots of Alexandra's brilliant illustration work, but also lots of other artists work too.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone and thanks for stopping by. 
I hope to see you again soon.

35 comments:

  1. love the summer colours of this so relaxing

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    1. Thanks Lorraine, I loved painting this and will definitely have another go with top quality paper and giving it my full attention :D

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  2. Denise....I love this and seeing how you did it was nice. I have been working trying to figure out how to do a pre-background rather than going back and adding it at the end. That way it is so uneven. Yours turned are so nicely. I am going to try it and see how I do. I am such a newbie to all of this. Hope you have a wonderful art filled weekend. genie

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    1. Thanks genie, I always love to see and read how an artist creates their work, so thought I'd explain this experiment. I've tried various methods when painting backgrounds and yet to master one ;D
      This kind of worked, but as I explained in the post I will try it again.
      I'd love to see how you get on with your artwork.

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  3. Oh love the wildflower painting ~ beautiful!

    Happy Weekend to you ~ ^_^

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    1. Thanks Carol, I enjoyed experimenting and will revisit this again for sure. I hope you have a happy week too.

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  4. brilliant job with your wildflower scene Denise! Happy PPF!

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    1. Thanks Linda, it was fun and something I'll try again.
      Happy PPF to you too.

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    1. Aww thank you so much Christine. I'm definitely going to revisit this again. It was fun and I think with better paper it might look much better.

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  6. A fabulous piece! Being distracted by all that weed pulling worked out for the best...you didn't overwork the painting. ;) I'm painting flowers today too. Hope to have a finished pic posted sometime this coming week. Enjoy the weekend! Hugs

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    1. Thanks Nan, I'll admit that it's not the best way to produce a piece of artwork, but at least it's a way that I can ensure I can do some art during my busy day.
      I'll look forward to seeing your flower painting too.

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  7. I love it..."tail end Charlie" Your meadow reminds me of meadows in the Colorado mountains. Happy you are thinking about the bees. We all need to be concerned about them. They may be pesky little rascals, but they are important to the ecosystem.

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    1. I feel I'm always a 'Tail-End Charlie' Susan.
      I've got quite a size of garden and there's always some flowers blooming. We have a lot of busy bees visiting us and we eat a lot of honey... so it seems perfect that we should have our own hive.
      As long as my hubby takes ownership and not me!

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  8. Even when you are in a hurry your art is bright, cheery, and full of life. Where I live we have no bumble, or honey bees. It is so scary.

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    1. Oh Nicole thank you for your lovely kind words. I enjoyed playing with this one.
      I can't imagine not having any bees. We have so many of them visiting our garden... I think I'd really miss them.

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  9. Your experiment was a complete success!! :)

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  10. A BEAUTIFUL painting Denise! Happy PPF!

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    1. Aww thank you so much Susi, I really appreciate your kind words.
      Happy PPF to you too.

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  11. that turned out really nice :)

    all the weeds here is why we put chuckies down in the yard, was getting to be too hard to deal with and the yard was pretty much just moss anyway

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    1. Thanks Jennifer,
      We have chuckies around certain parts of our garden paths and the pesky weeds love to pop up in between them! There's no getting away from them, especially in all this wet weather. They just love it!

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    2. we just killed all the grass, put a plastic sheet over it once it was all dead and so far no weeds *crosses fingers* there are weeds in the flower border tho :/

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    3. I'd come and help Jennifer, but I've got quite enough weeds of our own. It's a constant battle. We decided to leave a large space at the back of the lawn to wildflowers and weeds... for the bees etc. There's also quite a lot of granite stones hidden underneath it all (from a demolishion of a barn) so it would be a nightmare to dig them out!

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    4. thanks :) we live in an area where thankfully the council leaves a lot of the wildflowers alone so see lots of bees. John found a lot of rubble in the soil when he was building a garage, even old big concrete pipe sections and a lot of broken china, very odd lol

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  12. Beautiful...you need more faith in yourself...this would have been fine on a first time canvas...you are so talented!! Thankfully there is an awakening to the dire needs of our bee population! Cupcake just went to a hobby farm to collect some apples and wanted their honey too...but will have to wait three weeks! Sometime paying that higher price is so worth it! Would be so nice to have your own honey....Another project for retirement man?? Wink!

    Hugs Giggles

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    1. I'm always super critical of myself Giggles, I just can't help it.
      I will definitely have another go on good quality paper.
      We have been talking about having our own bees for quite some time... we just need to organise it now. We have so many flowers blooming in the garden throughout the year, plus lots of wildflowers and farmland surrounding us, that I'm sure they'd be happy bees. We eat large quantities of honey, especially hubby, so it would be ideal. We've also been talking about keeping chickens too!

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  13. Oh poop to you!! This is just a trial - I am just experimenting. You really are a REAL artist. I do love the flowers in the foreground and then the fading effect of what lies behind.
    Sandy xx

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    1. Haha... I really was experimenting Sandy. I hope to revisit this technique on quality paper and then hopefully I'll believe you about being a real artist ;D

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  14. The painting is lovely! I think it's wonderful.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words Lisa. I really appreciate such lovely comments.

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  15. OH, what a fun experiment and it turned out lovely! Well done, Neesie! :)

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    1. Hehe... thanks Serena. I had real fun with it, but will revisit and try using quality paper to see what a difference it might make.

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  16. Awww..thanks for the shout out! Your experimentation seems to be working fabulously well. And I see you have some new paints?! :) I LOVE the Kuretake. :D
    xx

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    1. My pleasure Alexandra, I enjoy your blog and love the illustrations so am quite happy to tell others to visit and spread the word.
      I've had those paints for some time and love them too. I'm obviously in a gushing mood today (hehe)
      I'm enjoying your take on life in the UK too. Enjoy :D

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