Saturday 12 May 2012

Tulip : Pink Inspiration

A few weeks ago, a fellow painter at Avon Valley Artists sent me an e mail with the most amazing painting attached that he had come across on Face Book. I was totally mind-blown by the painting, totally what I would aspire to achieve. The artists name is Cheng Zhenwen. I have called the flower Pink Inspiration, and I believe it looks like a peony.
I had a really good look and felt that there was lots of gouache or acrylic ink (for the whites) in the picture. I was determined to have a go! I needed some source material, and as luck would have it , the tulips in the garden were nearly over, so I took a few snaps, and thought this one might serve the purpose.



It seemed about the right shape, and sort of got over the plagarism issue by being a completely different flower and one I had grown myself.
The first stage was the drawing. I needed to put in most of the petals, as I was afraid of getting lost within the complexities of all those petals. I also wanted a vague second bloom on the left hand side. On the drawing you may be able to see that I put a cross in all the shapes of the second flower, to help me remember what I was painting at each stage. I needeed to remember to rub these out before painting over them, especially in the very pale areas.


I painted in the background first, keeping it very loose, and then started to build up the petal shapes, using neat white acrylic gouache on the petal edges, and dropping gouache onto a wet surface when I wanted edges to disappear. I used mostly Venetian Violet and Permanent Rose mixed with a variety of blues to get the range of pinks I needed.






When the central flower was complete, I used a lot more water, paint and gouache to suggest the second bloom, and allowed the gouache to  bleed into the pale areas of the background. It runs and granulates very well if there is plenty of water. I added the green leaves (maybe they are a tad small) and completed the background.
Finally I gave the painting a good splatter with both the gouache and the pink mixture to loosen the finished effect.


I am really pleasewd with the outcome, but yet again I have failed to paint as loosely as I would have wished. Maybe it just isn't in me to completely let go. It is also a whole lot more difficult . technique-wise than it looks, and Iwould love to find more of his work to have a look at and admire, I will certainly keep on using the gouache as I really like the effect. I do not think I need have any worries about copyright, as my effort in no way lives up to the beautiful painting which was my inspiration!!

10 comments:

  1. Hello Yvonne!What a beautiful result of research, work and passion for watercolor!
    I love your tulips.Thanks for share!

    This Chinese painter is fantastic! Today many Chinese artists paint very high level watercolors!Greetings,Rita.

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    1. You are very welcome, Rita. I am glad you enjoy looking. I will certainly have another go with lots of acrylic gouache, but it is completely different from traditional watercolour painting.

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  2. Hello Yvonne:) Beautiful! You did a great job on this one. Lovely colors and very softly painted. I also loved the painting from Cheng Zhenwen. I tryed to find something about his paintings on the internet but didn't could find anything?

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Renate. Glad you like the painting. I tried to find more of his work, but my painting colleague only finds work like this by randomly trawling facebook etc, which I do not have the time to do. Any more great work, and I will pass it on through one of my posts. Happy painting.

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  3. Beautiful flowers! im glad to find your blog, you make a really good job, congrat!

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  4. Thanks, Mari, I am glad you enjoy looking and reading.

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  5. Very nice. Quite how Cheng achieves the effect on his paintings is hard to fathom. His flower paintings are only part of his portfolio,. They have an ethereal quality and are not all like this so might not always appeal. Incidentally he was born in 1964 and is Taiwanese.

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    1. Thanks Peter. Yes, the technique is a mystery. We do not know what the size of the painting is, and maybe it is a large work, that has been reduced by the photo, and the paint may well be a lot more impasto than it appears in the photo, and maybe much freer as well. Will keep trying from time to time to see what develops. Have a rose painting on the easel at the moment - will see how that works out!

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  6. Goodness! how did I miss your posts recently...This is such a beautiful painting. It is so nice to be inspired by other artists, as you have been with Cheng Zhenwen, but in doing your version it brings out your own unique style.

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  7. Thanks, Ann for your comments. I think I am a bit of a roll at the moment, but not sure if I can keep up the standard, but I will try to keep improving. I am glad you enjoy looking.

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