Garden Painting

Garden Demonstration

 The flowers and urn as they appear in my garden

 The early evening light is somewhat diffused from over hanging branches

In this view you can easily see the 3 values, dark, medium and light.

My first step is to divide the 3 values into shapes and place them correctly on the canvas. I mix yellow ochre and turpentine and draw the shapes I see.  For this demonstration, I am using a 9x12 stretched canvas.  I have prepared the canvas with a warm ground, sanding it smooth. 

My basic palette of oil colors are as follows, cadmium yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, sap green, viridian and white.  

I mix sap green with ultramarine blue, using turpentine as my medium and quickly mass in this dark value behind the column. 

Next, I mix the middle value gray green and paint the lower third of the canvas.

The column and urn are the lightest values in the composition which I paint using a mixture of white and a small amount of cadmium red light to warm the white slightly. 

 Although the urn is light it is also more grey than the column so I use a little of the grey greens and white to mass that in. 

Next, I add spots of violet blue for the flowers, mixed from the ultramarine blue, alizarin and white.

The left side of the column shows a cool shadow,  I mix ultramarine blue with white and paint the left side of the column.

At this point in the painting, I step back from the canvas to judge whether I have the 3 values correctly represented. The late afternoon light is beautiful and comes through even at the early stages of the painting.