Rudbeckia

My darling wife works hard in the garden and the results of this hard work are wonderful displays of flowers. This year my wife grew some Rudbeckia plants. These plants have been a fantastic display of sunny yellow flowers for what seems to be months.  They look like little suns.  Like the suns that children draw.

Inspired by these plants and finding a canvass in the back of my workroom (calling it a studio seem pretentious). One sunny day a few weeks ago I went into the garden and laid myself flat out in front of one of the Rudbeckia plants with the canvass and a pencil. A few moments later my wife came rushing out asking me if I was ok. She had seen me flat in the garden but did not see the canvass. She thought that I had collapsed.

Armed with a mastic gun I outlined the flowers and produced the following picture. I like the naïve effect that the mastic gun only allows.

Size 16" x 20"

The flowers on the picture are still blooming whilst the plant is now fading.

Why did I think that I could copy nature.

God gave us nature to be inspired by, not to copy it. We mortals are incapable of copying nature and still retaining the impeccable beauty of all things untarnished by man.

I had not done much arty stuff over the summer and I though I would paint a copy of a photograph I had taken earlier in the year. Half way through I realised my mistake (copying nature). I then thought  I would experiment a bit and try to make the foreground flowers more prominent and the background flowers recede. I gave the background a thin wash of white which achieved what I intended. I made the foreground flowers more prominent by outlining them using a mastic gun. I liked the result of this. In the end I have not achieved a picture but I am in the process of trying again using the mastic gun. I live and learn (until I make the same mistake again).



18" x 14"



Roland (as I remember him)

I remember this man from my childhood. He would walk around the town dressed as probably best described as a Dandy, along with a silver tipped walking stick. I remember he once got on a bus that I was on. He stood and talked to the conductor and got off a few stops later without paying. I was possibly nine or ten at the time and I thought that he must be some one special not to have to pay. The thing that I kept in my mind was his red spotted neck scarf. His suit and hat were black making his scarf more prominent.  A while ago I came across a black and white photograph of Roland in book. It did not look right without his red scarf. Hence my ink, pen and red watercolour copy. I know it is not great art to copy something but it is good to keep my draughting skills in tune (weak excuse I know).

Do not try this at home. Some inks when watered down turn to a greeny blue colour. If you must, try Rotring ink. 



4" x 5"



PS sorry about the reflection in the photograph, I did not want to remove him from his frame.