Barbara's flower still life painting

  Here is Barbara's flower still life set up and here painting is progress.

  And here is Barbara's finished painting. There are so many things to like about this painting. I like the the sweeping rhythm of the leaves and lemons around the vase and the counter curve of the two red roses. The energy is great and Barbara's personal style is really developing.

  Here is Barbara's photo of her nice set up. I've noticed a few things that I might have looked for if I were to paint from this composition. Any style used or pushing or pulling of the pieces in this composition that I've broken down in this analysis to create an individual statement is fully legit. I think that looking for these kinds of relationships give us an informed basis to make decisions. This doesn't deal with color or value mostly just compositional stuff.

  1. To get a grounding on complex subjects it's helpful to find things like the center of objects and create units of measure. Here I measured from the bottom of the vase to the main oval of the dominant flower, then to the top of the flower and then to the top of the iris. So that length was the main building block measurement. I then turned it to the horizontal axis and found that the bulk of the composition fit into two units of our basic measurement. The line labeled 1. is the center line of the composition horizontally. I find the unit of measure somewhat roughly as I would working live from a still life, a model or a landscape, by holding my arm at full length and using a pencil to measure.

2. Notice the large, rough triangle the main triangles fit into.

3. There is another triangle containing the grouping of lemons. Note in the photo, the size relationship between the lemons and the largest rose, which I would usually use for comparison for all of the elements in the composition.

4. A note to indicate the bigger basic containing the shadow shapes.

4. Oops, a second number 4. This indicates the sweeping curves of the leaves which Barbara has captured so nicely.

5. A reminder when painting many flowers to look for the basic cup shape of the circular shapes emanating from the center and then peeling outward.

6. In the main rose there appears to be three main shapes starting with the main cup-like center to the second tighter group of petals to the third circle of petals expanding and curling back a bit more.

7. Even though the ends of the peach colored flower on the upper left look kind of spiky, they fit into a general curve shape.

  Here are a few notes on Barbara's painting directly to consider in future paintings. None of these things I'm pointing out need to be heeded. These choices are all the artist's prerogative of course.

1. As I noted above, I love the sweep of this area featuring the lemons and leaves however, the scale of the lemons is relatively large in the composition and they are floating. The lemons are sitting higher than the vase they are sitting in front of on the same plane.

2. This is indicating the center of the canvas. Barbara had a concern that the main elements of the composition are all pushed to the left of the canvas to allow room for the cool shadow. Frankly that was one of my first impressions of the piece. It might be something to be aware of next time but may not require a huge change to make the viewer more comfortable. For instance, 8. consider cutting the size of the peach colored rose back to the line I've indicated or so to create a little more air on the left side. and maybe making the lemon furthest back a little smaller.

3. Barbara might consider not cutting the cloth on the table top off at the corner. Cutting it off creates a dynamic shape in the corner that pulls our eye to it and off the painting.

4. I might consider reducing the size of this flower and reestablishing it's shape a little.

5. a note to point out that this in the arraignment the front red rose is dominant.

6. If the bottom of vase were shortened the lemons wouldn't be floating. Also the handle could be moved down a bit and maybe the vase could be wider/seen more.

7. Noting the nice rhythm of the leaves.

8. See above.

A few more notes, Barbara might consider dropping the line of the table top behind the vase and inch or two. The iris might be darker and the color of the peach colored rose just a tad more delicate.

I think that Barbara's painting is successful in many ways and with a few pushes and pulls can get even stronger.