These beautiful tulips were a present from a dear friend who I met up for coffee with yesterday, and they were so pretty I knew I just had to paint them!
Because I wanted to use the limewashed floorboards of the Studio floor as a backdrop, I took the tulips out of their vase and lay them down on the floor, arranging them until I thought the angle of the flowers against the floorboards worked. I quickly took a photo before placing them back in their vase a couple of moments later.
Usually I paint flowers ’alla prima’, from life in one session, but I wanted to savour my time painting these, so today I just concentrated on doing a thin under-painting using lots of turps, checking the photo to get the composition right. Once the under-painting is dry I will add the final thick and juicy paint, always looking at the fresh flowers for their true colours and tones (photographs are never true to the original), trying as always to keep the painting as loose and fresh as I can - never an easy task for me!
I really enjoyed my time in my little Cwtch studio painting these today, it was wonderful having the window open and the door flung wide, with the reflections of the garden pond dancing on the ceiling and a bumble bee buzzing in and out of the doorway as I painted. The clocks go forward tonight, which means lovely light evenings to enjoy. Spring is here. 🌷
