Painting Flowers from Life, a 2-day Workshop

This past weekend, I taught a semi-private workshop that focused on the joys and challenges of painting flowers from life. I was motivated to come up with this specific workshop because when I first began to use flowers in my still-life setups I often had my flowers fade and wilt before I had finished the painting.  And after years of trying out different techniques, I am now able to keep my flowers fresh for the duration of completing most paintings.

{at the beginning of a demonstration}

{further along in the demonstration}

Since I first began painting with oils it has always been my goal to paint from life when possible. I just love the immediacy, the sense of excitement and the connection that is built from sharing the same space with my painting subjects. Over the years I have been experimenting and improving upon the ways to extend the life of cut flowers so I would have more time to paint them.

I have read many gardening and flower arranging books, taken classes on flower arranging and even occasionally attended horticultural focused lectures and seminars, all in the goal to learn more and find ways to  include the plants and flowers I love into my artwork.

Over the years, I have picked up enough knowledge and tips that I can typically keep an arrangement looking good long enough to paint from the arrangement for a full five days, sometimes even more. And as I have yet to see any of this information available for artists who are also interested in painting flowers from life, I have put together a workshop that focuses on doing just this, painting seasonal flowers from life.

It was a pleasure to have three students participate in my inaugural workshop this past weekend.