Sunny Geraniums Plein Aire oil painting

 

 Sunny Geraniums oil painting by Marion Hedger

Oil on MDF gessoed board. 18x24cm

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The second of my red geranium plein air paintings. Part of my Garden 101 painting series
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Dancing Rudbeckias pastel painting

 Dancing Rudbeckias pastel painting by Marion Hedger

20x20cm (8"x8") soft pastel on sanded card

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This is one of my favourites, probably because I have a soft spot for the pink/turquoise colour combination which I think fit so well together.

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Sunny Geranium en plein aire painting in oils

My pots of geraniums are coming along nicely, and who could resist painting them. They give such a splash of colour, it makes me smile when I see them.

 Sunny Geraniums oil painting by Marion Hedger

18x24cm oils on canvas board (MDF)

I painted the board with an underpainting of pink for this one. Not a lot of it shows through in the final painting, but enough to give the red geraniums a sunny glow.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Calla Lilies, oil

Here is an update on the plein aire calla lilies I posted earlier. I have lightened the top of the background, added more contrasts, and very slightly smoothed some of the lily.

 15x20cm (6"x8")

Oil on canvas board

I think I prefer it. It didn't need much tinkering so I am quite happy with the result.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Calla Lilies Alla Prima oil painting

I've set myself a task to do 101 daily paintings related to my gardens, to try and loosen up my style. I did a few featuring the lemons and oranges from my trees but now that the flowers are blooming I am using those and painting en plein aire when possible. I am taking the liberty of cross posting in this blog.
Here is one of the calla lilies

White Calla Lilies Oil painting by Marion Hedger

27cm x 19cm (11"x8" approx)

Oil on canvas board

Painted alla prima wet in wet.

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I'd like your opinions. I am quite happy with them when I paint them (I have several iris paintings which I shall post later) - but when looking at them later, they leave me less than satisfied.

I am always undecided on whether or not to leave well enough alone (and use as a ref to see if I am improving), or to rework some of the areas and bring them up to a more finished piece. Or is this my nitpicking and fiddling side taking over.
All comments welcome.

PS I do like sloshing that thick paint around.

Garden Flowers watercolour painting

Garden Flowers painting by Marion Hedger

30x40cm (12"x18") water colour on wc paper

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This painting is of some of my English garden flowers, I am contemplating an alternative title of 'Reach for the sky' as this is what always comes to mind with these stately blooms. It was painted a few years ago and reminds me of those wonderful English cottage garden flowers that I cannot grow here- but then again, many of the plants I grow here will not survive in England. It's been a while since I painted in watercolour, but I do love the lovely loose washes that can be achieved in that medium.

Peach Amaryllis in soft pastels

  Peach Amaryllis painting by Marion Hedger

40x50cm (16"x20") soft pastels on sanded card

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This painting is from a photo I took at a local village flower festival, where the entire village was decked out in flowers including all the rooms in the chateau. These amarylis were hanging up-side-down along the large sweeping staircase - a truly breathtaking display.

Poppy Medley in triplicate - poppy paintings by Marion Hedger

I always love the way the flower petals catch the sunlight and give that lovely transparent glow. There is one reference that I have painted several times because I like the colour and the effect of light. It is of a group of poppies. Here are my different versions, all in different media.
The first in colour pencil - previous posted as a work-in-progress demonstration. Here is the link Poppy Medley Colored pencil demo

Poppy Medley 1 - Coloured pencil painting by Marion Hedger

30x30cm coloured pencil on sanded card.

The second is in Acrylic and my favourite.

Poppy Medley 2 - Acrylic painting by Marion Hedger

46x55cm Acrylic on box canvas.

The third is in oil pastel

 Poppy Medley 3 - Oil pastel painting by Marion Hedger

33x20cm on sanded card.

All three are colourful and look stunning in a contemporary setting.

NOTE: Thanks to wetcanvas.com reference image library for the reference photo

Bronze Slipper Orchid oil painting

Bronze Slipper Orchid with dew drops by Marion Hedger

46x55cm oils on narrow box canvas

The photo for this was taken at Park Pheonix, Nice, France a couple of weeks ago. I've tried to portray the waxy leaves on this one. I uses a blending technique to represent those shiny leaves, with some glazing with undiluted paint on some areas.

Stay tuned for more orchid paintings, as this is one of my favourite subjects.

Sunlit White Lilies Oil Painting

Sunlit Lilies oil painting by Marion Hedger

Oil on boxed canvas 40x40cm. 

Can be framed or hung directly on the wall.

These lilies were growing in a pot outside of my kitchen door last summer. The way the light was catching the petals intrigued me. I had to include the dew drops which were a challenge making them look real. I had to wipe away the first few attempts as I had the shadows much too dark.

Magnolia Grandiflora á la Georgia Oil Painting

Magnolia Grandiflora á la Georgia

Oil painting by Marion Hedger

50x50x1cm (20"x20")

Oil on boxed canvas - no need for a frame

This was painted as part of a challenge on wetcanvas.com floral forum. The challenge was to paint magnolias in the style of Georgia O'Keefe. It was quite a fun challenge and certainly challenging. How did I do?

Lily Bouquet Acrylic painting

Lily Bouquet by Marion Hedger

40x50cm (16"x20")

Acylic on gessoed mountboard

Not for sale

This one was painted many years ago. It is a special painting for me, as my husband was away on work for several weeks, and this is the bouquet he sent me on our anniversary.

Pink Camellias Still Life Acrylic painting

 Pink Camellias Still Life painting by Marion Hedger

50x50cm Acrylic on box canvas
Can be hung as is, or framed as desired.

"The camellia is a symbol of devotion for lovers in China. - In the eyes of the Chinese, the petals reflect the spirit of a lady, and the holder of the petals (the calyx) represents the young man entrusted by the lady as her protector.

The calyx of the camellia falls with the petals when the flower has finished blooming. This is unlike most other flowers, where the calyx seems to hang around the tree even after the petals have dropped. This phenomena symbolizes an everlasting union between lovers. In many parts of China, the camellia is considered as the flower for young sons and daughters." 

Thanks to 'livingartoriginals.com' for this description

Slipper Orchid oil painting

Slipper Orchid painting by Marion Hedger

40x40cm (16"x16") on black gessoed box canvas

This was painted in response to the wetcanvas.com floral forum monthly challenge. I used my own reference taken at Montreal Botanical Gardens a couple of years ago. I used a blending technique where I placed the paint onto the canvas and then used a soft brush to blend that paint together. It was painted alla prima apart from the 'spots' which were added once it was fairly dryish.
Here are some Work in Progress pics

Gridding and outline drawing - no details at this stage

 Underpainting in acrylics - lights using warm colours and shadows using cool colours. This acts as a guide for the highlights and shadows

Starting on applying the oil paint

Close-up of the paint before blending

After this stage I used a soft brush to blend the paint. Sometimes adding more paint if needed. I stopped taking photos as I got so caught up in the painting process.
I used very little pure white until the final highlights, but added a small amount of yellow ochre pale and/or pink just to tint the white.
I am used to using a lot of scumbling rather than a blending technique. This was an interesting process. The blending process takes a lot longer than the application of paint and it is interesting to feel the painting come to life.

Orchid Crowd WIP - Acylic painting

Orchid Crowd by Marion Hedger

50x60 cm 20"x24"

Acylic on canvas

Here are some WIP pics for this painting
Stage 1
The colourful underpainting using warm colours for the highlights and cool colours for the shadows.

Stage 2
Making the colours look more real. A true fauvist's delight

 Stage 3
Breaking up the areas more and more. It is starting to come alive now.

After this stage there is more and more refining. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos - as so often happens I get carried away.

Spring Irises Acrylic Painting

Spring Irises by Marion Hedger

40x40cm (16"x16")

Acrylic on canvas

I started these irises in the spring of 2008 from life as these were growing in my garden at the time. I left it unfinished until recently as I was unsure of how to finish it. It was my first attempt at glazing with medium and I wasn't enjoying using the glazing medium. As I am used to using the acrylic straight from the tube, or thinning with water if necessary I found the glazing medium sticky and not very satisfying as a 'painting feeling'. I eventually finished it off by using water to thin the acrylic in certain areas and undiluted acrylic in the front flowers. In fact it did not need to do much more work on it as adding the highlights suddenly lifted it.

Cup cake fun

After the success with my bronze iris, I started on a yellow iris. Yellow is such a hard colour and I have found it hard work. I decided I needed a break from the concentrated work and had a bit of fun with these. Cup cakes seem to be the rage at the moment - and the best part is that they have no hip expanding calories!

They are all 5"x7"

Acrylic on canvas board

Calla Lilies in oil pastel WIP

Calla Lily Lights by Marion Hedger

30x40cm oil pastel painting on blue colourfix paper

I have some lovely calla lilies growing under the shade of my magnolia grandiflora. They give a great stately display from early April until May lightening a shady corner. Here are some WIP pics.

The drawing with reference photo

Stage 1 blocking in the lights and darks

Step 2 - breaking up the masses

For some reason, I do not seem to have a stage 3 photo, but it was more of breaking down the masses working towards it looking real.

Stage 4 the finished piece

This started out as a study for a larger piece but I liked it so much I worked it up into a finished piece, although I will probably create a larger version at some time in the future.

Oil pastel works very well on colorfix paper allowing several layers to be added to achieve a real richness to the painting.

Pink Rose

Pink Rose

Acrylic painting
40x40cm on box canvas
 

I painted this rose as part of a monthly challenge on wetcanvas.

The challenge was to paint a rose macro in a colour you found difficult. I always find pinks difficult as they can come out either too sugary, too blue or too red.

The reference is from a rose in my garden. The area where I live, used to be very well known for growing roses for the perfume industry in Grasse. This rose was planted by the previous owners of my property.

Stage 1, Underpainting.

The rose was drawn onto the canvas using watercolour pencil. I then blocked in the darks using cool colours e.g. purple, blues, blue greens and greens, and the lights using warm colors oranges, reds and yellows. I used yellow for where I wanted the lightest highlights.

Stage 2

Paint was added to each area to make the colour look more 'real' I used alazarin crimson for the shadows and permanent rose for the lighter areas, mixed with white to a lesser or greater extent. I used titanium white and some mixing white.

The mixing white makes the colour more transparent, but titanium white gives a better colour, although it is quite opaque. I also mixed the alazarin crimson with ultramarine blue in places.

The paint was added dry, with a scumbling motion. Several layers were used to help get the correct tone.

Stage 3

More pink - permanent rose plus white was added to the light areas. A red layer was also added to the darker areas to give a warmer shadow and then overpainted with alazarin crimson.

To get to stage 4 (the finished piece) I scrumbled a layer of permanent rose all over, before putting on the last coats of pink. The permanent rose layer helped to lessen the 'chalky' look of some of the pink. I also used much thicker paint on the light petals.

Lastly, I used a lot of white in the highlights to give a very light pink and increase the contrast at the focal point.