Seas of Red

Poppies   acrylic ink A3 sketchbook page   ©2014Lisa Le Quelenec

It has been a very good year for poppies in my garden, there has been a lovely display. They are particularly beautiful when they are back lit from the sun. I have found it particularly poignant that the blooms were so many and lasted so long during this time of the 100 year anniversary of the start of World War I. Of all the things that I have seen and heard in the media about the commemorations this installation by ceramic artist Paul Cummins has been the most moving and beautiful to me so far. It is something I would love to see.

To buy a poppy and support six service charities register your interest here.

Poppy party

The skies may be cooler than previous days this week but the poppies are hot, hot, hot in the garden! Large cheery blooms are bobbing in the breeze and today some more have opened - white this time. If only I had some blue Himalayan ones I could of had a jubilee red, white and blue.

Poppies I, II & III watercolour over acrylic ink drawing  12x12cm ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

Wishing you all a wonderful celebratory weekend....

At last!

Oriental poppy sketch   pencil, ink and watercolour on A3 cartridge paper ©2012 Lisa Le Quelenec

I've been (not very patiently) waiting for my oriental poppies to bloom in the garden. This morning I woke up to not one but two beautiful fiery blooms. In between framing and working on an unexpected commission I took a break to go out and sketch them.

It's been hard the last week to get much painting done as it has suddenly gotten so hot here in the UK. The twenty minutes or so that I was outside today was enough for me in the heat. As I was drawing the sky started to turn a delicious blue/grey that threatened rain but soon passed. I'm hoping for a thunderstorm they might possibly be coming tomorrow. This heat is making me consider a return to oils....

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

 

detail





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.

A poppy sketchbook page

A3 sketchbook page - poppies
FW acrylic ink
©2011 Lisa Le Quelenec

The poppies have finished now but the above is a sketchbook page I did back in May when they were in all their glory. I think with a bit of tweaking I could make three paintings out of this page, it would be a lovely change from all the blue I paint. Acrylic ink is nice to play with too, such intense colours when used neat and almost like watercolour when diluted. So many paintings are flowing through my head at the moment...