Home Forums Explore Media Oil Painting Oil Painting – Hall of Fame Oil-from-life challenge, Mar. ’17: Blossoms, Buds, Bushes or Not-Yet-Flowering Trees

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  • #448640
    Grotius
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        Hi all,

        I’d like to initiate a month-long challenge to fellow oil painters: to paint some blossoms, buds or bushes or flowering trees from life — not from photographs or imagination. I hope this thread can chronicle the lives of some flowering trees and bushes around us as they hunker down in late winter (bushes and trees), or wake up from their long nap (buds), or spread their flowers to greet the spring (blossoms). Four guidelines:

        1. Paint from life — not from photographs or imagination. I want to see your direct impressions of budding life, unmediated by cameras.

        2. Paint one or more blossoms, bushes, buds, or flowering trees that are not yet budding or blooming. (Multiple submissions are welcome.) Personally, I’m hoping the weather cooperates and we’ll see a lot of blossoms by the end of the month! But it would also be interesting to see “pre-blossoms”: budding trees, snow-covered cherry trees that are still dormant, or bushes that will later blossom, like azalea bushes.

        3. Please submit something created new, this month, not something you’ve done in the past. (Optionally, you may post a photo of your work on the easel, with the subject in front of you, but this is not a requirement. James Gurney does require such a photo in his challenges, and I may implement one for later months, if this first challenge goes well.)

        4. Please list the size of your painting and support. E.g., ‘”8×10″, oil on panel.’

        —————–

        There’s no plein air requirement. If it’s too cold to venture outside, paint a bush or bud or blossom or flowering tree or not-yet-flowering tree from inside your house or studio or office or car. Or maybe you can find a budding plant indoors.

        There’s no requirement that you invite comment & critique. If you’d rather post without being critiqued, just say so; that’s fine by me!

        —————————

        At the end of the month, I will sum up the proceedings with a written awards ceremony in which every artist will receive at least one written commendation from me, in the form of a post here in this forum. (Yes, this is like every kid on the swimming team receiving a medal, lol.) E.g., “Best painting of a not-yet-flowering tree covered by snow,” or “Best cherry blossom from Japan,” etc. If you’d rather opt out of receiving such a commendation, just let me know.

        So there you have it. It’s March Madness! Have at it!

        - Geoff.
        My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

        #532819
        t1barkode
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            awesomeness

            #532795
            Grotius
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                Glad you like the idea! I’m in the DC area, and we’re expecting cherry blossoms early this year — just two weeks from now. I’m hoping I’ll be able to paint some pretty pink flowering trees for this thread. :)

                - Geoff.
                My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                #532820
                t1barkode
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                    Ohhhh yea! I think we have those here in Athens, Ohio! I love this idea as I have been painting still lifes from life all winter to prepare myself for plein air painting this spring. Should be enough days this month I can find that will be nice enough for me to get out there and complete this. I started out by painting from photo reference, and have found I enjoy painting from life much more!

                    #532796
                    Grotius
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                        I’m glad you’re excited about it! I prefer painting from life too.

                        Now we just need some help from the weather. The day I posted this challenge it was 70 degrees out here; now it’s down to 40! But spring is coming.

                        (Except down under, where it’s end of summer. I hope Wet Canvas members from Oz and New Zealand still have some flowering trees or bushes they can show off for us!)

                        - Geoff.
                        My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                        #532812
                        Myse
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                            I love the idea!

                            Comments and critics welcome. I want to progress!
                            marysecurinier-rochette.com
                            https://maryse.rochette.cc

                            #532809
                            maryinasia
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                                fun!

                                #532797
                                Grotius
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                                    Glad you like the idea, Maryinasia!

                                    So I thought I’d kick things off with a little black-and-white study I did today on my front lawn in the balmy 67 degree weather. I have a cherry tree that has been confused by the unseasonably warm winter weather, and it’s started to bloom. It’s still got more buds than blossoms, but there are a few pretty pink-white flowers. Alas, the temperature is supposed to drop thirty degrees over the next few days; I hope my tree’s flowers survive.

                                    I was using black-and-white because I’m working through Charles Sovek’s tonal exercises (from “Develop Your Natural Ability”). Once the flowers really start to bloom, I’ll break out the full color palette.

                                    This is not the world’s greatest study, lol. I hope it will reassure people that you don’t have to paint like Monet to get your blossoms into my thread! One excuse is that my back was killing me; I normally sit when I paint, but for some reason I tried standing today — and regretted it. The larger issue is composition: I like viewing the tree from this angle, as the sun hits it from the left, but the background (neighbor’s property across the street) is cluttered and confusing. Last year I tried replacing the neighbor with empty sky, but the result was rather barren. I’ll get it right sooner or later. Hey, this is why we do studies, right? :=)

                                    Oil on panel, 8″ x 10″.

                                    - Geoff.
                                    My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                    #532822
                                    Beginnerjesjr
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                                        With apologies I posted something in the incorrect location pulling it and putting it where it belongs.

                                        #532810
                                        maryinasia
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                                            beautiful!

                                            #532798
                                            Grotius
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                                                Thanks!

                                                Now there’s snow in the forecast for Monday-Tuesday. I hope I haven’t painted the only cherry blossoms I’ll see this year! If we get lots of snow, I’ll do a “snow-covered flowering tree” from my car or living room window.

                                                - Geoff.
                                                My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                                #532799
                                                Grotius
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                                                    A late-winter snowstorm jeopardizes the cherry blossoms in my front yard! But my challenge declares that we can post pictures of snow-covered flowering trees, and that’s what I’ve got: a tree bearing both snow and blossoms.

                                                    I’m still trying to figure out a good composition for this lovely tree. I did a dozen thumbnails in pencil, and then a quick watercolor sketch. After that, I spent a couple hours on the little oil study below.

                                                    As required by my challenge, I did the painting from life — I set up my pochade box just inside my front door so I wouldn’t have to brave the cold.

                                                    I used a limited palette of Titanium White plus three colors: Anthraquinoid Red, Ultramarine Blue, and Winsor (Phtalo) Green (Yellow Shade). C&C welcome. 6″ x 6″, oil on panel.

                                                    - Geoff.
                                                    My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                                    #532821
                                                    t1barkode
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                                                        Very nice Geoff. Unfortunately I have not been able to participate in this thus far due to the weather being too cold for my taste. Maybe it will warm up soon. Interesting pallet choice, I don’t think I could paint without SOME sort of yellow on my pallet. Sometimes I do like to use a limited pallet though, and when I do it is a Zorn type of pallet. I use flake white, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson, ivory black, burnt umber. As a matter of fact I would like to start doing more paintings with that pallet instead of my normal one. I like the thick paint in the foreground it looks delicious.

                                                        #532800
                                                        Grotius
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                                                            Thanks for your comments! I’ve never painted without yellow before; it was an interesting experiment. A more “standard” approach would’ve been to ditch my green in favor of a yellow, giving me a red, blue and yellow. But I was feeling adventurous. :) And yeah, the Zorn palette is on my to-do list. I may try a painting with it in the next couple weeks, as I’m basically doing a painting-a-day, so why not?

                                                            And I hear ya on the cold. When I was planning this challenge, it was 70 degrees and balmy here, lol. Then the temperature dropped 50 degrees. I guess I got a bit ahead of myself; I probably should’ve included a still-life option. If the cold persists through the entire month, I’m thinking I’ll do an azaleas-and-flowering-trees-from-life challenge in April. But ya know, I don’t regret creating this challenge, because it induced me to paint my cold cherry tree twice, and I might never have made the effort otherwise.

                                                            In any case, it’s supposed to warm up here this weekend, so I plan to be out there again, painting what I hope will be cherry blossoms!

                                                            - Geoff.
                                                            My website and blog: https://www.geoffwatsonart.com/

                                                            #532813
                                                            ntl
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                                                                Hello! Yesterday I decided to join this challenge to help me get back to painting, since I haven’t been able to paint for a couple of months.:)
                                                                I prepared my little paint box and located my easel and it’s parts. Due to circumstances beyond my control, they got put in different places. I prepared the smallest of my kits for a practice run, planning to use only Permalba White, yellow ochre, ivory black, and alizeron crimson.
                                                                This morning I hauled everything out to my orange tree, and proceeded to set things up: 2 small tables, a stool, the camera tripod and it’s other parts, paint box, water, camera, and palette. :eek: It’s been so long it took several minutes to remember how to attach the easel butler to the legs of the tripod. Finally got that set up. Next I opened my little box and realized that with this particular outfit, I can just set it on my lap and paint–no easel needed– so I prepared it for that and finally started on my little painting. Then I had to make a few trips to the car for other stuff, including an apron and a clock.
                                                                Then got interrupted.:eek: By the time I got back, the sun was high and at over 90′ F (33.3C),(Arizona, USA) too hot for me. So I carried paint stuff to the car and left
                                                                table and easel out–no rain expected. :crossfingers:
                                                                So, tomorrow, Sunday, I may work on my little one, or, I’ve been wanting to use my oil bars, so may take them instead, but several colors, not just 3, and a much larger support.:cat:
                                                                Happy Painting, All!

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