Can You Smell The Flowers?

I spotted these hollyhocks while wandering through Denver Botanic Gardens and decided to use them to frame the left side of my composition. They draw you into the painting where you discover the other flowers and the two human figures. Because of the attention to detail in the hollyhocks, I was able to suggest the other flowers with simple bits of color. The dark cool green trees in the distance were used to pop out the lighter colors in the two figures. This is the principle of placing a dark value next to a light value to command attention. The hollyhocks were painted with lemon yellow and cobalt violet and the dark background trees are a mixture of olive green and ultramarine blue. For the flower gardens I repeated the lemon yellow from the hollyhocks and then added small strokes of blue, red, violet, and green. The impression of sunlight and white flowers was created by leaving little bits of pure white paper. If the viewer gets the impression that they can actually smell the flowers then I consider it a successful painting. This weekend August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th is my last workshop in Botanic Gardens for the summer and there is still room. The price for one day is $90, two days $160 and three days for $210. If you are interested send me an email and come and paint the glorious colors with me.

Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton