Summer In The Garden

Botanic Gardens in Denver is gorgeous right now and subject matter for painting is in abundance. I have a Watercolor Workshop scheduled for July 12, 13 & 14. The workshop is filling up and if you are interested send me an email to pendletonstudio@gmail.com. You can sign up for 1, 2 or all 3 days and the prices are: 1 day $90, 2 days $160, and all 3 days $210. This painting of hollyhocks was done as a demonstration for a workshop last summer in the gardens. I choose three hollyhocks because odd numbers are pleasing to the eye. A watered down version of lemon yellow was used and for the centers of the flowers I added violet which is the complement of yellow. The big hollyhock leaves are always fun to paint because they are these big floppy shapes of different greens that have usually been ravaged by insects. The background is fairly abstract with a suggestion of buds and other flowers. It is easy to get caught up in painting the flowers and completing them before painting the leaves and background but this is a mistake which often leads to a painting that does not hold together. I Started with the flowers but then worked on the leaves and some of the background before finishing the flowers. The final touches were the deep shades of perylene green and indigo which set off the flowers and helped relate them to the leaves and background. I know relating the subject to the background can be difficult and working back and forth between the two helps me a lot. This painting also contains visible brush strokes, dripping paint, spattering, and a good combination of hard and soft edges. I include all of these in an effort to show the artist at work and to display the beauty of watercolor painting. Please join me on July 12, 13, & 14 for my workshop in Botanic Gardens and we will have fun painting subjects like these hollyhocks. I will demonstrate each day and give lots of personal attention. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton