Hydrangeas at my back door, 1 hour challenge

I entered this painting into the weekly challenge on dailypaintworks.com. The challenge was to paint from nature using a limited palette of cadmium yellow light, cadmium red, ultramarine blue and white, just using 3 brushes - a large, medium and small, and to painting it within an hour.

Hydrangeas by my back door
Oil on gessoed board 20x30cm

These hydrangeas are already past their best, and believe it or not are brilliant white! After they have flowered, they then turn this pinky/greeny/grey colour, almost as if they are spent from the beautiful show they put on. I just mangaged this within the hour and I tried so hard not to fiddle. This was harder than it looked and I think I fussed a bit too much on the hydrangeas, but it was fun.

Summer Bonanza Oil painting

This is another one of my loosening up exercises, this time base on one of Richard Schmid's work.

Summer Bonanza after Richard Schmid by Marion Hedger
Oil on canvas
41x33cm (16x13")

I started with an acrylic wash in pale blue. Then using a 1" wash brush, I brushed in some loose, random stipes using red oxide diluted with odourless mineral spirits, followed by a few loose brushstrokes of green. With a very small brush I then indicated the position of the main flowers and then went straight to using thicker paint. I tend to work all over the canvas, mixing my colours as I go and also on the canvas. The final stage was the highlights on the rose to make it pop. This was painted alla prima apart from the intial acrylic wash.

My next step is to use my own photos as the basis and see if I can keep the momentum going without getting too tight.

Rose Trio oil painting by Marion Hedger

I am on a quest to loosen up my floral oil paintings I have been scouring the internet for modern day artists that have the 'knack'. I have been studying their work and practicing my technique.


My work has gradually become looser as a natural progression, especially since I have been using oils - did I say that I love oils? - but I want to achieve that looseness that looks effortless (Haha!). I have long admired the artist Dreama Tolle Perry so decided to base this one on one of her wonderful rose paintings. This is the result

ROSE TRIO by Marion Hedger
Oil on canvas panel
41x33cm (16x13")

This is mostly alla prima, and I really enjoy this style. Initially it is quite frustrating as I wonder if I have it right and will the paint behave, but then all of a sudden it happens. I still use an underpainting of sorts and gradually build up until I find I have enough paint that it 'flows'. I am hoping that my technique will improve so that I can achieve the same result but more directly.

I'd be interested in what you think of this style.

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.

Magnolia Still Life

Magnolia Still Life

 by Marion Hedger

Oils, 40x40cm on boxed canvas

This painting was painted using an old watercolour painting as the basis. The original was painted on grey paper as an experiment. It originally had just the one open magnolia on the bottom left and three buds. When I came across it again, I thought "That doesn't look too bad" so ,as I am still in my oil phase, I decided to paint it in oils. Disaster. The comp did not look right at all.

When I analysed the original, I think it worked because I had painted it on the bottom right of a large sheet, and this gave the open flower lots of breathing space which it didn't have when transferred to a 40x40cm canvas. After looking at lots of magnolia photos and playing around with the comp, this is the end result. Let me know if you think the composition works.