Balance

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton, Spring has arrived and daffodils are in full bloom. It won't be long before trees are covered with pink and white blossoms, an artists delight. I painted this in Denver Botanic Gardens where there are many different trees that fill with blossoms every spring. In this painting there are three important elements, the tree branches, blossoms, and negative shapes.

I started by having the main tree branch drop from the upper left corner and swing across to the right border. Next I used foreshortening to introduce a second branch to connect to the lower border and right border. This created interesting negative shapes which will be discussed later. The knot on the main branch where a branch was removed stops the viewers eye from sliding to quickly along the curve. The branch's were painted with burnt sienna, French ultramarine blue, cerulean blue, and rose dore. While changing the values I allowed the warm components of the mixtures to dominate in some area and and the cool colors to dominate in other parts. While painting this I made sure to leave unpainted white paper where I could add blossoms overlapping the branches.

The second element is the blossoms and I painted those with cobalt violet, cerulean blue and mineral violet. The leaves are olive green with a touch of lemon yellow. I made sure that each of the blossoms are different in size, color, and detail with some barely suggested and others more carefully defined. You can see where I crowded blossoms in the upper right corner to balance the tree branch dropping out of the upper left corner. Other blossoms dangle on thin stems as they create a lacy pattern across unpainted white paper.

Finally, the third element is the negative shapes of unpainted white paper. It is important to see these as interesting shapes of different sizes that peak out between the blossoms and open into bigger areas that add atmosphere and provide resting places for the viewers eye. Always try to make the negative shapes as interesting as the painted shapes. The truth is I worked on all three of these elements at the same time, creating parts of branches interlocked with blossoms while always considering the different negative shapes. If you can learn to consider all the parts of your painting and how they relate to each other while you are working, painting becomes even more fun and the results will move you forward as an artist.

Starting Tuesday, April 1st, 2025 from 1:00 to 3:30 pm I will be teaching an online watercolor class titled "Blossom Time." For more information look at the Art Students League of Denver website or send me an email pendletonstudio@gmail.com. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton