The Lonely Lily

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I was going through my photo's when I came across this and remembered the day I painted it in my summer workshop at Denver Botanic Gardens. It was a warm sunny day and I had just talked about the importance of choosing a simple subject among all the interesting flowers and plants. These lilies were beautiful in the dappled sunlight and painting only one seemed to fit with our discussion

Placing the flower on my watercolor paper was important and I chose the upper cross point of the golden mean. Having it off center like this is more pleasing to the eye. With a single focal point and no secondary focal points it seemed to lend itself to a vignette where you do not paint to the borders but rather blend colors softly into the background while leaving an interesting arrangement of hard and soft edges and visable brush strokes. I have been interested in painting vignettes after studying the work of James McNeal Whistler. His vignettes of Venice are truly inspirational.

Starting with the gorgeous lily I mixed lemon yellow with transparent yellow and rose dore. This is an unusual combination and I was careful not to stir the colors up so that the delicate rose dore would not be overwhelmed. For the center of the flower I added transparent yellow and cadmium red. Finally I gently added cobalt violet here and there on the petals. The cast shadows on the lowest petal are a combination of cobalt violet and yellow ochre. Next I painted some brush strokes of cerulean blue around the lily and let them dry. This created a backdrop for the green leaves. With olive green and lemon yellow I painted bold brush strokes for the leaves. It is important to do this with as few brush strokes as possible to keep the painting from looking over worked.

Finally I set my painting among the flowers and leaves and stepped back to see how it was working. I then added a few more green leaves and called it finished. Happy Holidays Everyone. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton