Painting A Dream

Today was the last day of my Botanic Gardens Watercolor Workshop and I would like to thank everyone who came out to paint with me. The gardens are gorgeous and our only difficulty was choosing among all the beautiful possibilities. We painted sunflowers, hollyhocks, roses, lilies, leaves of different colors, lots of other flowers that I can't name and even the magnificent Rodin Sculpture that is perfectly displayed in the gardens. My demonstrations from the weekend will appear in future emails as I get them loaded onto this sight. The painting above is one from my large floral series and it is owned by Kaiser Permanente and on display at their Lone Tree Hospital. Sunflowers have long been a favorite subject of mine and this painting originated from a dream I had where I saw large sunflowers that seemed to be guarding over smaller sunflowers in a mysterious garden. A painting this size, 40 x 60 inches, allows me to create passages that weave in and out of each other with colors and values that challenge my imagination. I used cadmium yellow, lemon yellow, transparent yellow, and violet for the petals and burnt sienna and mineral violet for the centers. The greens were mixed from cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, and different yellows. The deepest colors in the background are mineral violet, ultramarine blue, and indigo. The placement of dark values against lighter values is prevalent throughout this composition and it is a way to direct the viewers eye. I hope everyone in the Denver area and everyone visiting Denver will make it to Botanic Gardens this Summer and who knows, maybe you will see an artist capturing the beauty in paint. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton