Art Group - Still Life - 01/11/19

In order to get myself back into painting I have dug out an old sketch that I'd done during a still life drawing session with my old art group. We sketched wedding flowers that had been left in the church hall where the group meets. I never particularly enjoy sketching, particularly as the point is to be as accurate as possible through very careful observation. My art is always more relaxed than that so my sketch had a rather abstract approach to it, in that the aqua-beads that were used in the vases were represented in clusters around the edges of the paper and canvas. I then added sprigs of foliage in amongst the aqua-beads. From these sprigs I created some flower stems and my own foliage/flower heads rather than meticulously copying the buds and blooms on display in front of me. I was happy with my initial sketch but when re-creating it on the canvas, the main bloom diminished in size, somewhat spoiling the overall impact of the image.

Tonight I have painted the aqua-beads in two shades of purple. It is highly intricate work and I don't have the correct brushes here with me in the caravan so it hasn't been easy but I am happy with my progress. It has been quite a challenge but I persevered and am now ready to tackle the foliage tomorrow. I had already painted a pale peachy coloured wash on the canvas whilst at my group.