Cosmos Party, Oil Painting

 Cosmos Party by Marion Hedger

20x20cm (8"x8")

Oil on canvas board

This painting was one of my first oil paintings. It was painted about 18months ago when I was still very much a novice with oil painting. I wanted to see if I could replicate the looseness I can achieve in pastel. I think I achieved it in this small painting and I like the result, it has a looseness and freshness about it that sometimes can be lost as you progress. As they say, "ignorance is a wonderful thing" LOL.
Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Spring Jonquils

Spring Jonquils

25x32cm oil pastel on black somerset velvet paper.









The Floral and Botanicals forum of wetcanvas.com January challenge was to paint white flowers. One of the supplied references was a lovely photo of some white jonquils which I couldn't resist. Painting white flowers is quite a challenge for me as I find it extremely hard to get the right balance of white and shadows.
I have started painting in oil pastels instead of the soft pastels to avoid the dust created with the soft pastels. They act totally different to soft pastels and using them is a whole new experience. I really enjoy using them although I consider myself a newbie with them. 



This is my stage 1 where I block in the highlights and shadows with warm and cool colours.







This is stage 2 where I start changing the colours to look 'real'.

This is stage 3 where I look for the different light and dark planes in each block of colour and start the layering process to give a more 3D effect. I am using creams and whites for the highlights and blues and purples for the shadow areas. The flowers are starting to come alive now.


 Stage 4 is more layering, I go over some of the highlights with yellow covering that with more white. I also blend some areas to achieve a smoother change from the highlights to the shadows. After leaving the oil pastel to set for a couple of days, I then look at the painting to assess if there are any final changes needed. I changed the angle of a couple of the petals and layered more whites and blue in the shadows. Overall, I was quite pleased with the result.

Parrot Tulip Dance Pastel Painting

PARROT TULIP DANCE
Soft Pastel 40 x 60cm on wallis paper

This painting was created from a photo I took at a local village flower show. The flower show is an annual event and the whole village including the castle/chateau is festooned with flower arrangements. It really is a must to see if you are ever in the French riviera in April.

Following on from painting pastels the colourful way, I decided to try the technique on a flower subject and the vibrancy of these parrot tulips just cried out to be painted.

Step 1 - I drew the parrot tulips and blocked in with colour, using cold colours for the darks and warm colours for the lights.

Step 2

Overpainting the underpainting to make the colours 'look right'.

Definitely a strange looking stage.

Step 3

Dividing the blocks of colour into 3 or 4 areas and finding the light and dark planes.

Starting to look like the parrot tulip

Step 4

Is a continuation of step 3. Dividing each of the areas created in step 3 again into 3 or 4 and digging deeper to find the changes in plane and colour. Any detail is also added in this last step.