Color Explosion in the Garden

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I had done a demonstration painting in Denver Botanic Gardens and I was in an energetic mood when I decided to do another painting. Without much preliminary drawing, I jumped right into painting after deciding to trust my intuition. Starting with the two big red and violet flowers I used cadmium red and cobalt violet then surrounded them with a dark green mixture of olive and perylene while carefully leaving a few bits of unpainted white paper.

Moving to the left I created the little white flowers also with unpainted white paper. They are surrounded with middle values of olive green and yellow ochre. Moving up I created more white flowers by painting around smaller bits of white paper with cerulean blue. Because I wanted this area to fade into the white background, I made lighter brushstrokes of cerulean blue and added some spattering. Next, above the white flowers on the left I painted small gold flowers with transparent yellow, olive green and cobalt violet. Moving down, the long thin flowers along the left border were painted with yellow ochre and rose dore. Again I used spattering to transition into the background.

Moving down while painting leaves and stems, I worked to create interesting negative shapes that would allow the white background into the painting. When painting a vignette it is important to fade the colors into the background while allowing the background to show through part of the painting. It is okay if a few of the brushstrokes touch the borders if it results in a better composition. It was fun allowing my mood to dictate how I worked through this painting and I joked to the other artists that it looked like there was an explosion of color in the garden. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton