Begonia painting from a photograph

I am starting to specialize in floral paintings. I have always been really impressed with traditional botanical art. However most of this is painted in watercolour and on white backgrounds. Most of it is technically perfect, and takes unbelievable hours of observation and recording. There is nothing wrong with that,at all, and I truly admire all artists who paint in that style.


However, watercolour is not for me!! I like bright dense bold colours,that I can layer up. So, I usually work in acrylics for my large paintings, and Chromacolour and gouache for my smaller paintings. I am also not keen on white backgrounds. I like to make the background an integral part of the painting, often being just as "important" as the subject matter.


I choose my flowers and plants carefully. The composition has to work, and usually I like to paint flowers that show areas of the background between petals and leaves. The negative spaces that I can paint a contrasting colour to really show off the structure of the plant.


I take masses of photographs of flowers, which I crop down in Photoshop to find a composition I think I can turn in to a painting. During the summer months I can work outside looking at the real thing, but in the winter I work from my photos.


Here is a photo of some begonias in my back garden taken in August.

I liked the colour mix here. Lovely shades of pinks with greens and some purple. There is lots of background to play with and the flowers can be seen from various angles. Perfect for a painting!


So this is what I painted. You can see I did not copy the photo exactly. I missed out a few things, and added in some extra leaves and stalks to fill up the background a bit.

The background was fun to paint. I went for a swirling mass of greens. I used light and dark areas to contrast with the petals and show off the stalks.

The whole painting is done in a layered impressionistic style. I start with flat base colours and then layer up dots and blobs of paint to get the desired effect. Here are some close ups so you can see the technique.

I enjoyed painting this design, It reminds me of sunny days in the back garden. Last night it was cold and really windy here. The rain came down very heavily all night. It makes me wish it was summer again!


I have turned this design in to a card.  At the moment this is just available at craft fairs. When I have the time, I shall get this in to some shops. One of the New Years resolutions I must do!!!