Animation Friday - In the garden on Margaret Street

Detail of "Margaret Street Garden", 60 x 90cm, acrylic on canvas

This week's animation is of another painting done for the Carnival of Flowers exhibition - delivery is this Wednesday. The theme has to be "Wine, Food or Flowers" (and flowers are obviously the subject here). I used to have an issue with painting flowers, thinking that they just didn't 'say' enough, but in recent years, I figure if Margaret Preston was happy to call herself 'a flower painter' then it's good enough for me!

To do this one I walked around my parent's garden (I've been painting at their place lately so Mum can help me with the kids) and took photos of some of the different plants, and put them together in this scene.

I overpainted a painting from a few years ago, starting with black gesso and then the shades of blue. I've propped the canvas up on a couple of my sister's tupperware containers which are now uniquely decorated - she didn't know about that, until now. Sorry Loz.

Glazes were used to 'knock back' the brightness of the greens, and to add depth to the background. I consciously made the background lighter than the foreground, where usually I do the opposite. I'll be talking about the different kinds of white that make this look possible in a couple of 'Art Tip's time.

And I finished off with my signature 'swirls and curls' for movement.

Often I think I'd like to stop at the 'sketch' stage though. That's the part that comes most naturally I think.

Thanks for indulging me! I hope someone finds this sort of thing interesting - I personally am really nosy about how other artists work! Next week I should have a different style of painting to share.

To see my fellow animators, visit my poppet today.