10 September, 2010

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!

gif animator


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.

8 comments:

  1. I have noticed those 'swirls' in your art ... they are a signature, aren't they.

    I hope you have a glass of wine to celebrate your flowers.

    You must have painted 1000s of paintings by now.

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  2. I think your flowers are also a bit of a signature. You've done them for a long time and always seem to come back to them. They must make you feel as happy as they do everyone else who sees them.

    The animation is great but can you slow it down a tad. All the better to peruse your cleverness. x

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  3. Lauren11:54 am

    I am not sure if Tupperware's life time guarantee includes a "my sister got paint all over them" clause. Nevermind - donated to a good cause I guess.
    Great painting too.

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  4. This is an amazing painting/animation. I always feel so much better after looking at flowers.

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  5. Are you kidding? This is the coolest of cool art posts. It's so much fun seeing your beautiful work coming to life through the art animation. Great things you have happening here of late. x

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  6. Those flowers are just blooming before my eyes, pretty.
    what a great way to document your process
    thanks for joining in this week
    cinti

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  7. I love these animations of your works in progress. Please keep them coming!

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  8. Anna, I'm absolutely loving your art tips posts (and the animations). I'm so curious about the artistic process and techniques. For someone who hasn't lifted even a pencil in years (except to draw dinosaurs for a certain 6 year old), it's lovely to inhabit your world vicariously for a few minutes.

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