When You're Bored

After the completion of my last watercolor painting, I was motivated to do another still life, this time with some of the nasturtiums from my garden. I didn’t realize how fragrant they were until I began picking and arranging them. Wow! My husband and I were both sneezing. But sometimes you must suffer for art. I had to work quickly, before the flowers wilted and our hay fever got worse, so I completed this project in one day. Now my bouquet is in the laundry room!

I used a pitcher/vase that I found at my favorite flea market, and chose some nectarines to add to the ensemble because they have the same colors as the flowers. Nectarines, nasturtiums: I seem to be into alliterative works of art these days. When I had my still life arranged, I photographed it and drew it using a Goldenrod Prismacolor pencil.

Next I painted the pitcher/vase. This is the opposite of the procedure I used last time, when I saved the pitcher for last. I started with Holbein Cerulean Blue. I would have liked to use a cooler blue, but the Prussian Blue that I ordered is out of stock. Still waiting for that. This blue seemed to work fine.

My next step was Cadmium Yellow Pale for the background, stool, leaves, fruit, and some of the flowers. Then I used Cadmium Red Light for the stool, fruit, flowers, and shading on the pitcher.

To finish this project, I used some Yellow Ochre and Permanent Alizarin Crimson, adding multiple layers of all colors to define the elements of the composition and add shadows, until I was satisfied.

Here is the finished, cropped piece. I’m already wondering what I should do for my next project. Maybe finish a couple of works in progress?