Miniature treasure oil painting - Poppy Waltz

Poppy Waltz palette knife painting

Oil on mini box canvas

10x10cm / 4x4" n

Purchase information

I've been painting a few miniature paintings in the last few days. This one is part of the poppy series along with Poppy Song and Poppy Dance.

These small paintings are an affordable way to start an art collection.

Using small paintings for stress relief

Poppy Dance Miniature Treasure

Palette knife painting

10x10cm / 4"x4"

oil on mini box canvas

Available on Daily Paintworks

Poppy Song Miniature Treasure

Palette knife painting

10x10cm / 4"x4"

oil on mini box canvas

Available on Daily Paintworks

I have been busy painting a commissioned landscape. My first commission and on an unusaul format 30x80cm (12"x32"). For a little light relief I took time out to paint these small paintings using a limited colour scheme. They were fun to do, they have lots of texture and would brighten up a small space either individually or both together.

Spring Garden Flowers Miniature Treasure oil paintings

Spring Garden Flowers Miniature Treasure

Oil on panel Palette knife painting

15x20cm (4"x6")
Available on Daily Paintworks

A lively colourful Miniature treasure painting to celebrate the arrival of Spring.
The edges have been painted black so it can be displayed on a plate stand, or it would look good framed - no glass needed.

 Some of my other miniature treasures available on Daily Paintworks

4x6 Miniature treasure painting - garden series

 A collection of four of my 4"x6" Miniature treasure paintings in the garden series.

All available at $40 on Daily Paintworks

The hardest thing about painting these small paintings is coming up with the idea. I can sometimes spend considerable time coming up with a suitable concept. I look through my photos, art magazines and web images for 'the spark', never copying but building on an idea.

These Miniature Treasures have found new homes in the UK and USA

If you are interesting in purchasing or commissioning one, or maybe more to make a stunning group, please contact me here

Garden Poppies 2 Miniature Treasure palette knife painting

 Garden Poppies 2 Miniature Treasure

palette knife painting

acrylic on MDF panel

10x15cm (4"x6")
Available on Daily Paintworks

This is a sister painting to yesterday's post

 

The edges have been painted black, so it can be displayed on a plate stand. It would also look good framed (no glass needed).
Here is an example of it framed.

Garden Poppies Miniature Treasure palette knife painting

 Garden Poppies Miniature Treasure

palette knife painting

acrylic on MDF panel

10x15cm (4"x6")
Available on Daily Paintworks

I'm looking forward to the spring. The poppies will soon be popping up all over the garden. I let these poppies self seed each year and often help them by collecting the seed and sowing them. This year we should have a really good display as we have been rearranging the garden and poppies just love disturbed ground.

About this painting
This was painted with a palette knife, but because I used acrylics there is much less texture than when I use oils. I have not used acrylics much over the last couple of years, but I did like the fast drying and not having to treat the painting so delicately and waiting for it to dry. The surface has been varnished for protection.

The edges have been painted black, so it can be displayed on a plate stand. It would also look good framed (no glass needed).
Here is an example of it framed.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Flowers that don't die on St Valentine's Day

This is a fun post highlighting some of my florals that would make good Valentine's Day gifts (or hints!).

 Old Fashioned

Roses still life palette knife painting

24x30cm (approx 10x12")

Oil on canvas panel
Purchase information

Sweet Memories - Roses still life

palette knife paintings

24x30cm (approx 10x12inches)

Oil on canvas panel 
Available in my Etsy store 

Rose still life arrangement No. 2

Mini treasure Palette knife painting

Impasto oil

10x10cm (4x4inch) on box canvas
Can be hung without a frame

Available for purchase in my Etsy store

Poppy Trio Palette knife painting

20x20cm (8"x8") on box canvas
The sides of the canvas are painted black
No frame required

Available for purchase in my Etsy Store

Poppy Trio Palette knife painting in oils

Poppy Trio Palette knife painting

20x20cm (8"x8") on box canvas
The sides of the canvas are painted black
No frame required

Day 24 of the 30 day challenge

Available for purchase in my Etsy Store

The thirty day challenge has now finished and I can relax a little.  I have been posting my paintings for the challenge on my daily painting blog as it has been too difficult to keep up with the two blogs. Over the next few days I will repost my flower paintings on this blog.

About this painting
This is an upcycled painting, also of poppies, that I sort of liked but it was a bit dark. I decided to redo the painting (the original one had 5 poppies which also made it a bit crowded). I first painted the highlights with cadmium yellow and then hit it with the red. The painting is now much brighter and livelier and has more impact.

Some close-ups of the knife work

 

Newsletter

I will be sending out my first today or tomorrow. Sign up for my newsletter or blog using the subscription boxes on the left hand column, and you will be entered into a draw for my Sunflowers miniature treasures painting. You have up until the 7th February to be in with a chance.
 

Poppy sunshine trio oil painting

 Poppy sunshine trio

20x40cm (8"x16") oil on thick box canvas

canvas sides are painted dark blue so can be hung without a frame

See here to purchase

Today I just felt like painting poppies.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

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

Red Poppy on Black

Red Poppy on Black by Marion Hedger
30x30cm Acrylic on box canvas

NFS but commissions accepted

I painted this for my Mum on her 80th birthday as poppies were her favourite flower.

I started with a black gessoed canvas, roughly sketched in the flower and then started scumbling in white paint for the highlights. After obtaining the basic shape plus shadow areas, I used a yellow for the brightest part of the petals followed by red. I used a scumbling technique throughout varying the layers. The shadow areas were left quite lightly scumbled, with more or less pressure depending on the extent of the shadow.

Some of my Zazzle product featuring this painting:

Red Poppy on black Mouse Mat by Marionsart
Browse more Poppy Mousepads

Poppy cut out by Marionsart
View other Poppy T-Shirts

Flower Studies in Oils

I have recently started using oils after joining an oil painting group each Friday. I have found that I really like the feel of painting with oils and it is fast becoming my favourite medium. I still have much to learn and so far I have only painted (not quite) alla prima.
I was hesitating how to start, and in the end decided just to go for it. Here are a couple of the flower studies that I did and are my first attempt at florals in oils.

Cosmos Fancies by Marion Hedger

20x20cm (8"x8")

Oil on canvas board

Poppy Stance by Marion Hedger

20x20cm (8"x8")

Oil on canvas board

Poppy madness

After completing my poppy medley, I had the urge to paint more poppies. I gave myself a stern lecture and insisted I finish some half finished paintings first before starting something new.

Red poppies on black
I started this one a couple of months ago. It is in oil pastel and I wanted to see if I could portray poppies in oil pastel. I love painting them in soft pastel and I have also painted them  in watercolour and acrylic. This is from one of my own photographs of poppies in my garden here in France. I let them self seed every year and as I don't do much weeding they reward me with a wonderful show every year.

RED POPPIES ON BLACK
30x40 cm, oil pastel on Somerset Velvet paper.

The blue stands out a little too much in the photo, although I have reduced it in photshop. It's difficult photographing art work on black paper, if anyone knows of any good tips on how to do it, please let me know. The paper is a lovely paper to work on. It is a printing paper and works well for soft pastel as well as for oil pastels. It has a soft 'springy' surface and takes a lot of wear and tear.

Orange Glory
This is the second one I finished. It is a rework of a failed watercolour painting.

ORANGE GLORY
30X40cm oil pastels on watercolour paper.

This is also from one of my own photos but from my English garden taken about 5 years ago.

I learnt a lot about oil pastels with this painting. I was having trouble with it and thought I had spoilt it completely. But because I left it alone for a while, when I came back to it I was able to over work it with quite a few more layers and even completely change the shape of the bottom poppy.

I'd be interested in your opinions on these as I quite like the way the turned out although I did wonder if oil pastels was too heavy a medium for the subject.


I had fun creating some art gifts on zazzle

Orange Glory floral Mouse Mat by artbymarion
See more Poppies Mousepads

Poppies on Black Poster by artbymarion
Poster printing by zazzle.co.uk

Poppy Medley

Poppy Medley 30x30cm coloured pencil on sanded card.

 

This painting is from the May Plant Parade challenge on Wet Canvas. I cropped one of the photos and painted the underpainting in my usual way but this time using water solouble neopastel and water to  cover the paper. I have used the neopastels for the under painting on several oil pastel paintings and it works well for me.

 Initially I planned to do this painting in oil pastels, but something made me decide to use coloured pencil which I hadn't used for quite a while.
I sharpened my pencils and set to work on stage 2 - making the colours look 'real'

 This is the stage where it starts to look more like the objects. I decided that I need more of this 'colouring' stage and here is stage 2.2

Definitely starting to look like flowers now!
Stage 3 is finding the changes in plane and lights and shadows on the petals by dividing the larger masses into smaller masses.

The light through the petals is starting to show.

Stage 4 is more of the same - splitting the masses and really looking at the colours and pushing them and putting in that all important centre of the main poppy.
I enjoyed painting this one and the coloured pencils worked well on the sanded paper which did not use up the pencils as much as I thought they would.