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.

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

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.