Wednesday 27 July 2011

Poppy pair

 
Poppy I
acrylic on paper 53x53cm
©Lisa Le Quelenec 2011

Poppy II
acrylic on paper 53x53cm
©Lisa Le Quelenec 2011
  
I've been having fun over the last week or so painting these. Whilst I've painted poppies before I haven't painted them on such a big scale. It's been good to loosen up a little with larger areas of more fluid paint. I wanted to keep the background minimal so the entire focus is centred on the fiery forms of the petals.

 
detail
 
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The seed heads were plotted in early on by scratching in to the first layer of paint with the end of the brush. This made linear ridges of paint that I could dry brush over to build up the form. I've purposely kept them in a softer focus with no detail to suggest depth. As subsequent layers of glaze were added this helped to push them back. I painted the centres in by first adding in the dark veins in the petals and then glazing the reds on top. The flower centres were the last thing to be added which whilst they might look detailed in the picture are really quite loosely painted.

4 comments:

Roger Seddon said...

These are very pretty Lisa and I can appreciate the time, the skill, care and attention that goes into producing flower studies of this quality. I am pleased to see you are working on a larger scale than usual. A large format gives the artist scope to be bold and expressive. You must be very pleased with this work. We grow red oriental poppies in our garden and the colours depicted here are just right. Very well done.

Lisa Le Quelenec said...

Hi Roger, thank you. I really enjoyed working on a bigger scale again and it was good to work on a pair. I love the vibrant colour of oriental poppies and hearing the bees buzzing around in them which is such a happy sound. Have a great day.

Anonymous said...

Hi! I was looking for works of art to show children to inspire them to sketch and paint poppies and after Van Gogh and Georgia O'Keeffe I found you! Love these and will be showing them to my class this half term! Alison Rich

Alison Rich said...

Hi! I was looking for works of art to show children to inspire them to sketch and paint poppies and after Van Gogh and Georgia O'Keeffe I found you! Love these and will be showing them to my class this half term!