In our pansy study, we sketched and became familiar with the differences between pansies (largest), violas (medium size), and violets (smallest, but have largest leaves). Pansies and violas come in so many colors! You can paint any color or combination of colors you wish without fear of being wrong in your selection. Pansies are one of the most popular flowers in decorating and gardening.
We were invited to sketch and draw on surfaces of our choice. I brought a silver water pitcher that had been properly prepped and painted a light yellow. With the use of Retarder and Antiquing Medium, I added a glaze of reds that gave it a sort of peach / coral hue. I also had a small tin pail that was painted a very toned shade of pink (Thistle). Being much more interested in the Chippendale piece (previous post), I treated these pieces as "study" and simply added the pansies and violas here and there as we painted the different colors.
On the next to last day, my ugly pitcher got it's feet and handle painted the dark red (Purple Madder) with a dry brush of Rose Gold over the top. At this point most of the painting was done and I began to really like it. I wanted to add a border at the top; one of my dear students suggested I put a braid, a less expected treatment. THAT took me several hours to work out as I chose to do a celtic braid.
Here is the finished pitcher:
The inside of the pitcher is "clean" but makes a nice vase with the insertion of a small glass jar to hold flowers.
Below is the small tin pail. The pansies were just too bright against the toned background. To help this, I shade glazed around each element with Purple Madder plus a touch of green to tone. I liked those results best.
The end....
Pansies were cultivated from the common wildflower viola tricolor. We can thank Lady Mary Elizabeth Bennet (1785-1861) who was obsessed with cultivating every pansy variety possible. With others joining the quest, by 1833 there were 400 named varieties of pansies available to the public! It is interesting that the viola tricolor is still important for medicinal uses. It has some wonderful folk names: heartsease, heart's delight, tickle-my-fancy, jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me, three faces in a hood, or love-in-idleness.
We were invited to sketch and draw on surfaces of our choice. I brought a silver water pitcher that had been properly prepped and painted a light yellow. With the use of Retarder and Antiquing Medium, I added a glaze of reds that gave it a sort of peach / coral hue. I also had a small tin pail that was painted a very toned shade of pink (Thistle). Being much more interested in the Chippendale piece (previous post), I treated these pieces as "study" and simply added the pansies and violas here and there as we painted the different colors.
On the next to last day, my ugly pitcher got it's feet and handle painted the dark red (Purple Madder) with a dry brush of Rose Gold over the top. At this point most of the painting was done and I began to really like it. I wanted to add a border at the top; one of my dear students suggested I put a braid, a less expected treatment. THAT took me several hours to work out as I chose to do a celtic braid.
Here is the finished pitcher:
The inside of the pitcher is "clean" but makes a nice vase with the insertion of a small glass jar to hold flowers.
Below is the small tin pail. The pansies were just too bright against the toned background. To help this, I shade glazed around each element with Purple Madder plus a touch of green to tone. I liked those results best.
The end....
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