Peonies Summer 2024

One of my students created this fabulous floral arrangement with peonies from her garden. As a class we decided to paint it. In the quiet of my studio I pondered how I could make this doable for students with a range of skills, from beginner to advanced. I opened the photo in Photoshop and used the Posterize filter. I was hoping the filter would 
simplify all that petal detail. And it did, somewhat.
But, it still looks complicated!

I did a small study in my sketchbook. First, I decided what colors to use for the flowers. Then a thumbnail sketch, with the thought of a larger painting in a loose, impressionistic style. In painting the thumbnail I realized the idea of doing this larger felt overwhelming. Especially knowing I would have to do a demo for the class in real time.

I went back to the original photo and zoomed in on this closeup of three peonies, which felt more comfortable to do for a demo.

The start to my demo was so shocking to me, I stopped right here. (first image, left, above) The Beginning and the End of the Demo. The colors. The fact that I was painting every petal...yikes. The next four images document my process, back in the studio, of trying to save what I felt was a failure. I ended up painting a lot of layers, lots of glazing. And making the background very dark. It was not a quick process, and not what I had in mind. Yet, I was happy I kept going, learned a lot. Teaching is a nonstop learning experience. The students powered through as well. And were happy to hear the next assignment would be Cherries. Simple round objects!