Jonah wants to paint artichokes.

Jonah’s photo. And my version, deciding to zoom in closer to the artichokes. The leaves are messy, Not as shapely as I would like. The round leaves of the nasturtiums are a strong simple shape. Now I have to consider how I’m going to treat the surrounding foliage in a painting. It’s not going to be replicating exactly what’s in the photo.

Sketching and planning. I drew a thumbnail, kind of mindlessly wandering around the contours of the artichokes. Tried some colors to figure out how to get the right greens. Then a very loose sketch, thinking about values. First thumbnail sketch; “How about a dark background?” Next thumbnail; not so dark. I considered how I wanted to break up the background. Wondering if the nasturtium leaves are too much the same size as the artichokes? 


Practicing for the demo before class. I pulled out a piece of watercolor paper I had previously painted with an all over wash of very light blue green. I added more washes in blue and green, referring to my thumbnails and the photo in a very general way. After this dried, I drew the artichokes. Then I painted the artichokes, a section at a time. Defined leaves with negative painting.

Performance painting. The two small images are what I accomplished in my demo for class. I still find it hair raising, this painting in front of people… that’s another story. The large image is how I finished the painting back in my studio.

Student paintings. I love this work. Everybody took chances!