Posted on by MarionBE

Painting Project Photo Gallery: The Tall Sunflower

It’s clear that the tall sunflower is full of inspiration!

By Bee, watercolour. Modified from the initial stopping point to make bigger centre and some more petals. As usual it is the quick ones that work for me.

From Marion: I love what you’ve done with this! The flower head feels like a glorious sunflower now, and the richness of the colours in the centre and yellows of the petals is glorious. I think it’s one to mount and keep! As for quicker being more successful, the challenge would seem to me to be to figure out what you’re doing differently between quick and more sustained paintings, I wonder if you slow down the pace you’re working at and overthink it?
By Cathi: Had great fun with my sunflowers. I even did a concertina one like yours, which I sent to friends going through a horrible time and it has taken pride of place in their sitting room!

From Marion: Delighted you’ve had such fun with this, and I think your enjoyment is evident in your paintings and that you were inspired to do it with different mediums.
By Cathi: Done entirely in coloured inks. I feel the dark ‘core’ at the base of the sunflower should be extended left and right a little  bit, but I haven’t got round to doing that yet.

From Marion: I agree that it wants extending as it feels like it fades out to the sides at the base rather than being a foundation.. But if you don’t get around to extending it, cropping with a mount might solve it.
By Cathi: Then I did an acrylic close-up version with mica bling (that doesn’t show up very well in the photo)
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From Marion: Nevermind the bling, which is so hard to photograph, I’m in love with the textures and layered colour. The leaves work particularly well for me, with such a sense of movement and the scratchiness of their hairy surface.. I do wonder whether the blue behind the flowerhead wants to be stronger, though it’ll be a fiddly job to add it now.
By Cathi: Next was using my fude pen and purple ink for the outline and acrylic to add colour.

From Marion: My first reaction was a bit of an ‘eek’ at the purple, but it’s grown on me and, of course, yellow and purple are complementaries. I wonder if reducing the amount of purple visible in the centre of the flower to just the edges of the area would shift the impact of the purple from in-your-face to serves-to-make-the-yellows-vibrant? Also, there doesn’t seem to be any purple in the grasses at the base, which makes the two parts of the painting feel a little disconnected.
By Cathi: And finally I had fun doing a collage inspired by my decorating in the sitting room – I call it “sunflowers and planets”.

From Marion: I can’t but smile at the thought that sunflowers crossed over with your decorating! The power of art to influence all aspects of our lives…
By Sarah, botanical leaf print on fabric: “I’ve hurt my right hand and don’t think I will be able to do much for a couple of weeks, so will this count as my monthly submission instead of a painting?”

From Marion: Definitely! Not least because it’s a tantalising glimpse into this printing technique.

My sunflower painting has been sitting nearly finished for some weeks now. I still want to tweak the background blue a bit, with some gentle colour and tone variations.

Thanks to Bee, Cathi, and Sarah for sharing your sunflower pieces. The full list of monthly projects and related content can be found here, and remember it’s never too late to give something a go. If you’d like individual help with your painting, sign up either as a project subscriber or for individual mentorship through my Patreon page here.

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