Magenta Oleander posy still life - Day 11 of the 30 day challenge

Magenta Oleander posy still life

Palette knife painting

15x15cm (6"x6")

Oil on box canvas

Available in my Etsy store

A companion piece to yesterdays painting. This time painted from life.

I looked around the garden for flowers and it is pretty bare of flowers at the moment. Normally in September the plants come back into their own after the summer, but we haven't had any rain in a while so it's lacking much colour. The Oleander however, is still flowering away. I have several, all different colours - I'm thinking of painting the pink ones to form a trio of small posy paintings. 

About this painting

Oleanders are difficult to paint, especially alla prima. I tried to just capture the form of the petals and the general attitude of the flower. The background has more light green in it than appears in the photo, to off-set all that pink. I'm musing on whether or not, the background behind the flower needs to be darker.

Summer Colour, container flowers oil painting

Summer Colours, Container flower painting

Oil Palette knife painting

25x30cm (10"x12") on box canvas (gallery wrapped)

The edges are painted black.

I was very good this year and potted up my containers early. My reward is a beautiful, colourful display on my patio.

Some close-ups of the palette knife work

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Abstract Tulips palette knife painting, oil on canvas panel

Abstract Tulips

Palette knife painting

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

Oil on canvas board

Available in my Etsy shop

My tulips are all finished now - but the irises are on their way - so it's not all bad!

This was painted while the tulips were in their prime. It started out as impressionist/realism but I got carried away. I took a palette knife to the surface and swiped it over the painting. This gave a lovely loose abstract feel. A few lines finished off the painting.

Some close-ups

Pink Hydrangeas still life palette knife painting

Pink Hydrangeas still life

palette knife painting

Oil on canvas panel, 30cmx30cm (12x12inch)

Available in my Etsy store

I am harking back to summer with this painting. These hydrangeas, picked from the garden, come from bushes that were in the garden when we arrived. They have some massive blooms, but they do need to be kept watered in the summer - not easy in the Provence summer.

Sweet Memories - Roses still life palette knfie painting

Sweet Memories - Roses still life

palette knife paintings

24x30cm (approx 10x12inches)

Oil on canvas panel 
Available in my Etsy store

Another rose still life. I wanted a soft low key effect on this one. Here are some close-ups of the knife work

Ikebana 1 - Pink Chrysanthemums

Ikebana 1 - Pink Chrysanthemums

22x27cm (approx  9"x11")

oil on canvas board

Palette knife painting

I've taken a break from painting landscapes for the last couple of dates to paint some floral still lifes.

I was given a book on Ikebana by a neighbour and this started me thinking about this month's challenge on the floral forum of wetcanvas.com. This painting is inspired by the book, the challenge and my imagination.

It is the first time I have painted chrysanths and I wanted to achieve an ethereal 'look' in the painting. I used a very limited palette and started with an indistinct background using my main colours. I liked the result, if I was to do it again, I would probably make the flowers larger and blend them in more with some of the green. What do you think?

I liked the idea of using Ikebana as the basis of the painting and I have completed four paintings for the challenge so I will post another tomorrow.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE 

Give a gift of an original artwork, or gift certificate to family and friends. I will gladly gift wrap a painting and send it directly to the recipient with a gift tag. 

Pendulous Petunias, oil painting

 Pendulous Petunias

Oil on canvas panel

24x18cm (approx 7x10")

palette knife painting

Bid on this painting on DPW Here

This painting was part of my 30 days hath September challenge which I have placed for auction on Daily Paintworks.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

My smaller paintings make excellent gifts. I will also gift wrap a painting and sending direct to the recipient if you prefer.

Pink Mallow Garden 101 series Oil Painting

Pink Mallow oil painting

Oil on canvas panel, painted wet in wet

24 x 18 cm (approx 10" x 7")

Shipping options

Within France €80,00 EUR Withing USA €90,00 EUR Within Europe €85,00 EUR

I painted this as part of my Garden 101 series in the summer. I didn't quite like it at that stage. I was looking through my "to be finished" pile and liked it much better than when I first painted it. I tweaked a few bits and now I feel it is finished.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Pink Hibiscus syriacus still life painting

Hibiscus syriacus by Marion Hedger
18 cm x 24 (approx 7" x 10") oil on MDF canvas panel

These flowers were picked form our hibiscus syriacus tree which produces these beautiful double flowers every summer. It was in the garden when we bought the house and is featured on the original house plans so must be at least 45 years old. I placed them in a green jug and placed some striped fabric behind it to set off the flowers. Part of my Garden 101 daily paintings.

This painting is for sale on Etsy CLICK HERE TO VIEW

See also my painting Orange Delight which uses the same striped fabric as the background.

Pink Geraniums oil painting

 Pink Geraniums Container Plant by Marion Hedger

Oil on canvas panel, 17x24 cm (approx 7"x11")

These pink geraniums - or should I say pelargoniums? - are part of my container garden that brightesn up my back patio area in the summer. Because we have such dry summers, it is hard to have anything flowering as most of the plants go into a dormant stage. So I plant up a lot of containers to brighten the barbeque area. It's a win win situation as they are also lovely to paint.

Part of my Garden 101 series.

To bid on this painting CLICK HERE

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Dancing Rudbeckias pastel painting

 Dancing Rudbeckias pastel painting by Marion Hedger

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

Click Here to Bid

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.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

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

Dancing Fuschias Acrylic Painting

This is one of my earlier works that I realise I have not previously shared with you.

 Dancing Fuchsias by Marion Hedger

Acylic on box canvas

40x40x5cm (16"x16"x2")

My Website  

This was one of my first paintings on a black gessoed background. I cropped a larger photo to obtain the a more macro image and generally scumbled all the colours on until the depth of colour required was achieved, but first I gradually lightened the highlights with a thin scumbling of white. The darks have less layers than the light areas, especially the deeper darks. That is one of the advantages of the black background it creates some lovely darks, although I never leave the pure black showing.
This image is also available as a mousemat from Zazzle

Dancing Fuschias Mouse Mat by artbymarion
Buy a mousepad at zazzle.co.uk

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.