Monday 21 March 2011

HIBISCUS ON LANA VANGUARD

I have now finished my second floral watercolour on Lana Vanguard surface of two hibiscus blooms. I photographed these in a garden in Port Elizabeth when I was visiting friends who have a second home there and they took me on a wonderful sketching tour of South Africa back in 2007. I had bluebird hibiscus in my garden at Cherry trees with many a photograph of the glorious blooms in my archives, but I wanted a contrast with the blue of the iris I have already painted in this trio.


Here is photo of early stages of the painting:







Thought you'd like to see an early closeup as well, so you can see the wonderful effect this slippery surface has on the many watercolour washes:








Finally, here is the completed work 12" x 16" to go in a 16" x 20" frame with nice wide ivory mount:





Now to number three - possibly the South African trip is inspiring me because I'm thinking of creating a very large strelizia from a watercolour I painted in my Saunders Waterford HP pad
in the garden in Port Elizabeth:








Here I am working on some kafferboom we picked from a tree just outside the bungalow where I was staying. When I painting the strelizia I picked one bloom but kept dashing back to the front garden to see how the leaves grew:




Ah! memories!

8 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

The hibiscus is very beautiful The close-up shows how stunning those washes appear on this surface. Really well done. I agree that you should paint the strelizia...the study is very beautiful. Ah, how lucky artists are to create such beauty!

Sandy Maudlin said...

You're a true master of this paper. Beautiful work.

comic said...

nice work..

Sandra Rowney said...

The Hibiscus is really beautiful, well done Joan, you are really working well with the new surface and it is great to see you working with the flowers.

"JeanneG" said...

Very beautiful flower. Love the detail in the bloom.

Rachel Neil said...

The colours on your poppy looks so vibrant, I'm an artist too but I can't seem to be able to intensify my colours on my art pieces.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Thanks everyone. It was a joy to do. Rachel I've added you to my blogsites I am enjoying (see RH bar) so every time you post work it will show up with image and anyone can link to it including me to comment.

The Pottering Artist said...

Dear Joan - this hibiscus took my breath away. Very emotive and beautifully handled in a sensitive painterly way - I lov eit! Do you have an Etsy shop? I think you would like it there :) Alison