Crown flowers - labour in painting

This is only a small painting that is slightly bigger than a postcard. I was trying out the Artist acrylic paints that I bought over the weekend using colours that I did not have before. Layering the paints from dark to light and trying to play around with different strokes and colour application to get a result that I could be satisfied with, I went from acceptable to overdoing the white highlights. So of the whole series documenting this particular exercise, I like the second last painting best.

Practice

This is just a sketch of lotus flowers based on photos of individual flowers. I composed the drawing of how they would look together filling in the space between them with lotus leaves the way I imagined they would look to complement these blooms. Ideally, I would like this picture to be in colour. Ideally! Perhaps I might return to this drawing at a later time to fill in the colours, or perhaps I might replicate this drawing in colour. I do not like to dwell on a drawing or painting for too long for I lose interest somehow.

Next, I saw a photo of twoVanda Miss Joaquim orchid flowers in a book on Tropical Flowers. In doing this drawing I was able to appreciate how intricate a design nature has come up with in this flower even though the overall impression, to me, is that it is rather plain and unimpressive. After this exercise in which I had to look at the flower in greater detail, I am quite convinced that orchid flowers are good subjects for drawing and painting.

Practice session

Painting with brush and ink is like a form of therapy because I wield an ink brush with more ease than one loaded with acrylic. However, I still love painting with oils and acrylic. I love the work of Van Gogh and a few other impressionist painters like Monet and would love to start on something on a bigger canvas the size of a 42" Panel TVand try my hand at painting in that kind of style. Dreams aside, reality only allows me snippets of time here and there to indulge in art. This time I decided to paint birds. I began using the Chinese brush painting approach.

Next I wanted to do something more colourful and so I added some water colours to the basic ink sketch. This was when I found myself applying oil painting techniques. That was rather fun and I really enjoyed this new experience. My reference for these small paintings (size of a notebook that is half A4 size) is the book "A Passion for Birds" by Ong Kiem Sian that contain beautiful shots of many varieties of birds found in our region.

A different approach

I left this unfinished painting out in the cold for nearly a week. I had started with no idea of what to paint because thinking about the subject usually results in procrastination. So I started by doing a background wash using a big flat paint brush. Then the repetitive action of brushing with regular strokes got boring and I picked up a sponge that was lying around. I dipped it into my glob of acrylic paint mixed with some water and then discovered that I could make interesting patterns with it.

After playing around and getting a feel of using the sponge in a spontaneous manner, I created a background with what I thought looked like waves. A thought came out of the blue to put in shapes that are associated with the colour and the sea. The crescent moon was painted in because I wanted to put in yellow on the blue to brighten up the background. Then I put in more crescent shapes to represent boats. The dolphin, whale and starfish followed next because these are sea creatures that I have much admiration for.

I painted an aeroplane and a ship to represent my travel experiences. By that time, I only had a blue background with blue shapes that outline the basic structure to support the subject that I had yet to materialise in my thoughts. After spending some time contemplating, I decided that the main 'actors' on my canvas would be flowers and especially those I had had some prior practice in drawing or painting. Eventually my boats doubled up as vessels for flowers to bloom on my canvas.

I painted the flowers carefully, layering paints of different colours over and over again to make the flowers come alive. These colours not just the dominant colours of the respective flowers but also colours that they absorb from their surroundings. Painting iin this manner is all consuming because it requires intense concentration. Having done the flowers, the painting looked a little bare. I took a break of a day or two before adding in the leaves.

Not all the colours applied to my flowers are faithful to nature. That is what I like about art - it's all in the eye of the beholder. For me, the colours come partly from recall based on observation, partly from referencing books and photos and partly from how I had felt at the time of painting.

A friend once said that doing abstract is fun and anyone can do it. I am not ready to do abstract paintings, not yet because I believe that if I do not understand what I see thoroughly, my 'abstract' would be child's play, anyone can do it when what I think is that abstract paintings are based on a lot of thinking and feeling before one can look at it and see its depth instead of superficial shapes and colours. So for now, I stick to subjects that are identifiable. So you can see the hibiscus, the sunflower, the Heliconia and the morning glory. Maybe the passiflora lauriflora (passion fruit flower), the banana flower (golden lotus), Air Simpoh and the ginger flower.

Overall, I am satisfied with my progress in painting the flowers as I learned through trial and error while trying to recall what I had learned in my painting lessons a few years back. Learning through doing - nothing beats this kind of learning because it is experiential, hands-on and absolutely engaging. Give me a manual and I will burn it!

This is one of my more enjoyable endeavours in painting because of the approach of just letting ideas evolve and watching the subject develop on the canvas instead of painting what is there before me like doing a still life or a portrait. The painting is still not completed. I am kind of stuck here because I find the background so chillingly cold. My son says leave the background alone and I am very tempted to change the colour. So I am just leaving it as it is for now...till the next wave of inspiration arrives to complete it.

Painting with a purpose

It has always been hard to get down to painting. I make tons of excuses for myself and then I thought that I would never get down to learning if I do not get started. So it had to start with a good reason and instead of excuses, I gave myself reason to paint. So I decided to paint something for a friend's birthday. No, I did not make the clay container. I picked it up for $1.90 at a nursery, came home and deliberated for half a day on what to paint on it before getting started.

The leftover paints were used to paint the last two mangosteens given by a cousin from Malaysia.

My painting of the Glory Lily

Ta daaaa! Finished my painting at last. I just realised that the flower has far too many petals. This is the result of working based on impression rather than research. But never mind, this is not a botanical drawing and I can be forgiven I guess for taking liberties with nature.

I also found that painting with fabric paint is not as daunting as imagined. I thought I would make a mess but I managed to find a way to work the paints after overcoming some initial hiccups.

Preliminary drawing

Hibiscus bonanza

It started with a an imaginery hibiscus in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. Using ink and chinese brush felt good. It gave me a sudden urge to fill the entire paper with different species of hibiscus flowers. And so I did with reference to all the photos I have taken of various hibiscus flowers over the years.

Drawing energizes me even though it was late at night when I did these drawings. It was a great exercise for the soul.

Details, I love details

Whenever I need to have 'me-time', I draw because that is the time when I am just totally at peace with myself and the world. The more engrossed I am, the darker my drawings become. It is as if every stroke, every pen mark represents the intensity of my thoughts that are all concentrated on the subject that I happen to be drawing. Unlike the drawings of people walking around where there was no time to go into details and my thoughts were fleeting, touch-and-go like, this drawing is more intense because the subject is a photo of flowers. It is static and it had my attention for as long as I was willing to spend time studying its form and appearance.

Photo of the Kopsia singapurensis in 'Gardenwise' (Jul 2009 issue) publication of the Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Sketching exercises

From a vantage point in a building I saw many people walking in the street below. From a distance, I was able to single out interesting subjects and capture the form in the fleeting seconds as each moved across my view, towards or away from me. Singaporeans walk pretty fast especially the younger ones. I decided that my sketches had to be done speedily and should only capture the key characteristic of each person in simple strokes. I also made it a point to sketch only women because I find them more interesting - different hairdos, clothes, handbags etc.

At the end, it was a fun activity for me. I enjoyed the challenge of capturing the images in brief strokes before they disappear from my life in a matter of moments.

Fish

This pond holds happy fish that are free to swim anywhere within its boundaries. They have no fear of being caught or eaten. They are able to reach old age without disturbances and there is no worry of where food is coming from as they are well taken care of. I like to watch them and freeze their lives at precise moments with the camera and then to play around with the colours, the tones and experiment at framing the subjects in a way that reflects what I was thinking about when I snapped the pictures.

This one above is my favourite because it shows depth and makes me aware of the two dimensions of space - inside and outside the water surface, the dividing plane being the reflection of the plants above and the floating twigs on the water.

I wanted a couple - a big, strong and regal fish and its consort.

I thought the reflection of the cloud interesting and as soon as a fish swam into view I took this picture because at that moment it felt like the fish was entering a heavenly realm.

I was not going to take this shot until I saw my own reflection and thought I should also be a part of nature and took the shot before the fish swam out of view.

Tree

Look at this tree! Chinese brush painting for the first time and it's a fantastic creation by my son. Wow, I am so inspired!

Time-filler

Painting with Chinese ink and brush is very relaxing. I don't have to labour over choices of colours because I only work with black and white here. How you use the brush is up to your imagination and how you make impressions and forms on paper is something you can explore to your heart's content.

Most of all, I can do quick paintings in between things I have to do in a day.

Famenco in Blue

It took less than two minutes to manipulate a simple editing tool to produce this effect. I like it, yes I like it very much because the colours are those I like most. If I were to title this photo it would be "Flamenco in blue".

Sunflowers

It starts with a wash in the background

then the shapes and shades evolve
colours came and went
only playing with paint
with sunflowers on my mind

Torch Ginger - preliminary to oil/acrylic painting

I heeded my daughter's advice that I should just paint no matter what may be distracting me from doing so. 'Just go and do your chinese brush painting mum!' and I did. Though I like the free flowing actions that the chinese brush allows me, I am still very much in love with the use of oils or acrylic and addicted to the details rather than letting myself go along with impressions and fine lines that I could have employed using Chinese brush painting techniques. So as time progressed, my painting got darker and darker but it gave me the incentive to move onto oil. This weekend perhaps!

Things in my house

Only one of the two items here belong to me.

My spectacles and the wrist-rest filled with gel
half of which has been squeezed out by my son. Not drawn to scale.

Plastic chair for kids.

Green capsicums a few days before they were devoured.

My stainless steel kettle since replaced with electric boiler
because I have a problem remembering to turn off the gas.

A cheap but beautifully glazed, hand-made clay pot
picked up from a nursery that I use as a pencil holder.

Where the trash goes...

My marble-and-teak stool, one of four that came with
the marble-top coffee table that serves as my work bench.