Almond blossom WIP Still Life oil palette knife painting

Almond Blossom Palette knife painting WIP

24x30cm (approx 10x12inch)

Oil on Canvas Panel

Work in Progress

As you read this I shall be on my way to Japan. Hopefully the cherry blossom will be in bloom and I will come away with heaps of photos to work from when I get back. I may also do some sketching while I am there.

To get me in the mood, I cut some of my almond blossom an placed it in this vase. The vase is from a set of three, all slightly different but all with odd angled sides. Talk about making things difficult to paint! This painting is not quite finished - I still have to work on the branch on the table and, now that I see the photo, alter the stem on the left.

Contact me about this, or any other painting HERE

Container Glory garden flowers, container flowers WIP

Container glory oil painting

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

oil on MDF canvas panel

Started using a brush and finished using a palette knife

This painting is for sale in my Etsy shop
or contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Step 1, Loose block in of the local colours using thin paint

 Step 2, starting to define the masses using thicker paint alternating between the brush and knife

Step 3, just using the knife now and thicker paint, looking at the shadows and highlights to get a more 3D effect

I reduced some of the busyness in the top right hand corner and added more highlights and shadows. I also made sure I had more 'breathing space' at the top of the flowers as I felt it was a bit too dense. I also made sure the colours were balanced adding a bit of red to the purples and some purples to the reds.

I painted some of my container geraniums last year. See HERE and HERE