A Little Bit of Summer, A Little Bit of Winter

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Grivante

I had forgotten about scents, so few flowers really have a strong scent that at least to the male nose last. Today I was handed Cilantro flowers, of which I was a bit skeptical, White flowers and light green stocks, but then I remembered how much I like the way cilantro smells and tastes of course.

I grabbed the test piece I’ve been messing with all spring.

Today is pleasant, cool, but pleasant.

I have put a bunch of different things on this, but hadn’t made notes on what was what, so I unfortunately don’t recall what made the greyish color around the horribly rendered sword, I kind of like it, the color not the sword. I think it was meant to be a scimitar or the like and well, it is sword shapedish? Yes, spellcheck…I hear you.

Anyway, the Blue beneath the sword is a wet green-blue, very nice. It comes from a Purple Iris that is abundant right now. It is very flaky, lots of debri.

The Cilantro flowers turned a most interesting hazy reddish-brown and smelled wonderfully like Cilantro. Still has a good scent to it 20 minutes or so later. We have some Basil coming on and tons of Oregano, maybe I should do a piece with only scented stock…perhaps it might stink both literally and figuratively. I make myself laugh, that is all that matters.

I have a reddish brown and two greens, not sure what to make with that. There have not been any images in my head of late, very empty space as far as hard visuals go. I want to sketch better, losing sight of any image because you cannot capture its essence well enough can be a bit challenging on the artistic nerves.

Purple Spec(ta)tre

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Grivante

This image came to me one night as I drifted off to sleep. We had been reading Terry Prattchet’s “Mort” a fabulously fun read. I would like to say this wasn’t influenced at all by the book, but there’s really no way it wasn’t, so I guess we’ll call this my tribute to “Mort”

From the image in my mind came a simple sketch

Then colored in with pencil to get a feel for what kind of colors I might need to find.

I collected various flowers from the garden and brought them in.

I spread them out to see the colors on the canvas. I lay the torn petals out in a stream from his eye, just how later I would cast his vision on to a flower. This is one of my favorite images.

Filling in the background blues.

The rest of the blues for the background completed. I really enjoyed this part because instead of using the swirl effect I had done thus far, I tried streaking the flowers across the canvas. I enjoy the flow it gave to the painting.

Nearly Finished

A close up on the eye

This was where it sat for quite some time, I used a berry, don’t recall which kind at the moment to get the red and quite by accident it took on a heart shape.

I maybe should have stopped here, but there were two pieces I desperately wanted to add to this piece. A vibrant red for the flower, I may or may not launch into a multi page epic about how difficult a good red is to find. For now, suffice it to say, it is a lengthy subject.

Second, I wanted to add a layer of shimmer to his robe and maybe the night sky. I had intended to do this by finishing it, spraying the sealer on it and then running the White Hollyhock across it to give it that iridescent quality it gives so well…

However, that failed. I don’t think I did any damage to the overall painting with the attempt, but I could see it was having an undesired effect.

I am happy with the final piece, but no so much the red.

Here is a close up on the flower

And lastly, I thought this might be interesting. This is the back of the canvas, where I often prep a batch of petals for painting on the front of the canvas or try out something I am not sure of how it will look.

Red & White Petunia’s hijacked from a gas station

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Grivante

Last night on our way home from seeing Sperm! The Musical at the Panida in Sandpoint, ID, I raided the Petunia’s at the gas station on the way out of town.

While my criminal ways may be increasing, it is all in the name of art. The white flower was like most and did nothing other than leave a dirty smudge on the pages of the palette book. The red however left a decent purple, with a strange silver/grey spot at the center. I am not sure what part of the flower caused it, but I hope to get some more samples to try and see if it can be isolated. As of yet I have not had any luck in finding a color such as that.

Project#5 Purple Sun, Purple Flowers w/Purple Pansies, Yellow Pansies & Black Hollyhocks

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Grivante

This is the first piece I am considering completed of sorts. I again set out to accomplish the vision I had of mixing yellow’s and blue’s and seeing what I could do with it, only to put the Black Hollyhock into play and changing the scope of the piece.

Most of the painting is done with the purple and yellow Pansies to create the blue atmosphere, there is a strip of Black Lily along the bottom and then the sun and flowers were done with Black Hollyhock.

In the end I think there are some really cool aspects to it and I am starting to learn more of what certain flowers are going to do, plus I think it shows the potential of the medium to do more than abstract hues and tones.

However, my thumbs were thoroughly sore afterwards.

The hazy butterfly shape is from a Yellow Marigold, I plucked from the parking lot of Best Buy in Coeur D’alene, my son shook his head when I stopped and opened the car door, reached out, grabbed it and drove away. I don’t have a problem…just a passion.

3rd Attempt – with Black Lily

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Grivante

This was the third piece I did. I primarily used the Black Lilly leaves here as well as the yellow from the Anthers.

The coolest part of this piece was some of the shapes that happened accidentally, I added plenty of things on purpose, but a combination of swirls and a speck of debris left behind from the petals, gave what I see as part of a wolves face as well as part of a females face behind it. Check it out and let me know what you see.

A different view of the same section.

This part here was a close up of some of the swirls from the bottom left corner.

All in all it wasn’t the look I was going for when I started but it was a great learning experience as to how the Black Lily behaved and some of the effects that could be created with it.

Black Hollyhock – Sticky Purple

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Grivante

When Lisa brought me a leaf from her just in bloom black Hollyhock, I quickly tried it on the nearest piece of paper I could find and discovered it to be the most vibrant purple I had seen yet and I had discovered a lot of purples in the garden.

It is very sticky to work with and can leave a faint purple color or a deep rich purple that can over power in certain situations. Use it to pop or with other strong colors. It does leave behind a fair amount of debris.

I unfortunately put it on to the original sample canvas and found that it was a bit too much compared to what was already on there. At present I haven’t quite decided what if anything to do with it now.

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Scrye Dye

Painting with flowers

Tag Archives: purple