Chrysanthemums, Pumpkins and Birds - Watercolor Painting Demonstration

Pumpkins, Birds and Mums
Recently, my watercolor students have been painting Autumn scenes. This means pumpkins and chrysanthemums are included.

They particularly wanted to know how to paint mums which can seem difficult at first because they are a mound of color broken up into individual flowers. You may be wondering the same thing.

So, let's take a look at how I painted the mums in this scene.

Dahlias, Red, Yellow and White Flower Watercolor Painting

Every couple of weeks, three students arrive at my studio for painting lessons. They are great fun to have here and sometimes they come bearing gifts, like vegetables and fruit from their gardens.
One of them has gorgeous flower gardens. The last time they came for class, she trotted up to my door with a beautiful bouquet of red and yellow Dahlia flowers with a white one hiding in the bunch.

I could not wait to paint them, they were so beautiful!

But my students were more interested in painting pumpkins than Dahlia flowers which they thought were a bit complicated, so as soon as they left, I got out an 8x10 sheet of watercolor paper, set the vase of flowers next to my easel and got to work.

So involved was I with painting, that I only stopped once to take a picture of my progress:

After some contemplation,  I decided to leave the background white.  I think it just looks right, what do you think?

Check my botanical flower gallery for more of my floral art prints. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a lovely day!


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Cornstalks, Chrysanthemums and Indian Corn Autumn Watercolor Painting Demonstration

 Cornstalks and Chrysanthemums original watercolor painting 5"x7"

It's such a joy to visit a farm stand in the fall - so many treasures to delight the eye and to bring home: crisp apples, pumpkins, colorful mums and dried cornstalks for your porch or lamp post.

This scene is from a local farm stand. I had a great time painting it because of all the great colors in the flowers, the Indian corn and especially the cornstalk leaves. I'll show you how I did that below:

Autumn Barn Painting Chrysanthemums at the Farm Stand

This pretty scene is from a farm stand in a nearby town. I was driving by one sparkling autumn day and the banks of colorful mums caught my eye. So I stopped and, while the crowds of people were shopping for pumpkins and flowers, I took pictures!

These mums were on a large cart with a red barn in the distance. Let's take a look below at how I painted this scene.

Autumn Glory Original Watercolor Landscape Painting

October arrives and with the cool weather, you feel the urge to go North as the birds are flying South. Fall beckons you to places far from the maddening swirl of everyday life where the only sound is a brook running along a stony bed, the only sight a wild landscape alive with the glorious hues of Autumn.

I'll show you how I painted this scene. It took me three tries to get this painting just the way I want it - fresh, spontaneous and impressionistic. One never stops learning as an artist!

Painting a butterfly and Black-eyed Susan Flowers

Today let's paint the Black-eyed Susans that are incredibly still blooming in a garden down the road from me even at this late date.

Though I have not seen butterflies recently as it's early October, I'm going to add a pretty one that I saw in my yard a few weeks ago.

Normally I begin a painting with the background, but this time, I just want to dive in and do those pretty flowers.
Using a wet-into-wet technique and red, yellow and blue, all the colors I need can be mixed right on the paper. Click the image to see it closer.

Next, I add the leaves. Some are in shadow and some in the sunlight.

Those that are facing the sky in the sunlight get a wash of pale blueish green since they reflect the blue sky. The leaf colors are mixed from yellow and blue. I used Winsor Blue, French Ultramarine and Cadmium Yellow.

I like the effect of dappled sunlight on flowers so I  brushed in some shadows on the petals.

Yellow has to be the most difficult of all the colors to paint in shadow. It has a very short value range so it's not possible to get it very dark.
Sometimes the yellow is more greenish in shadow and sometimes more orange. The trick is to look very carefully to see which it is.

These flowers have both green-yellow and orange-yellow in the shadows, so I add blue and red to my yellow depending on how it appears to me.

 For the butterfly, I painted it almost entirely  blue first, then when dry, added the darks and details. Now the painting is complete. I hope you enjoyed this short demo.
Butterfly and Black-eyed Susans is sold, but you can contact me to have one made just for you.


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