Happy Mother's Day

Watercolor Painting by Dennis Pendleton. I decided to send out flowers for Mother's Day. This is a painting I did in a friend's garden in Taos, New Mexico. Rod had an enormous garden which was the envy of all the gardeners in Taos and this was one little spot near his studio. I was attracted to the tall blue flowers that were a stunning backdrop for the white daisies. I started with the big white daisy near the center leaving unpainted white paper and framed it with cerulean blue and French ultramarine blue which turned into the delphinium's. The French ultramarine blue, being a darker value, was used for the shadow side of the delphinium's.

To keep the white daisy from looking flat, I added the light pastel colors of cobalt violet and cerulean blue allowing the orange from the center to drip onto the petals. For the light stems, I used a clean damp brush to lift out the lines where the dark blue and green were already painted. As I added the other daisies, again unpainted white paper, I made sure that they were all smaller and facing in different directions from the one I started with. The greens are mixtures of olive, lemon yellow, cerulean blue, and French ultramarine blue. I layered these leaves on top of each other to give a depth and thickness to the garden.

Painting in a beautiful garden like this can be overwhelming. It is important to focus on one particular area and I often use a viewer. When painting outside, the light is always changing and time is limited so taking on to much can be a recipe for failure. In that case, it is often better to do a few small paintings rather than one larger one. To finish a larger painting, you can return the next day at the same time and hope the sunlight is the same. Choosing one flower, surrounded by other flowers, and placing it where you want on the watercolor paper is a good way to start because it helps you focus. You can then work out from that flower in different directions until you are satisfied with the composition. I deliberately do not draw everything and leave some white paper to give my imagination room to work. Summer is coming on and I am looking forward to painting in different gardens once again. Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton