Primula sketch8 x 10 watercolour pencils and wash
I don't enjoy drawing flowers. I know that I can, but for some reason, I just don't like them. Perhaps its the difficult level - all those nooks and crannies of leaves. All the colours, shading and complexity of petals.
At the weekend the supermarket had these little pots of primulas for sale, vainly trying to pretend it was spring in the -10 temperatures. I loved the colours and brightness of them so bought one, bundled it up like a baby to take it from the store to the car and home then let it try to inspire me. I dared it to.
And of course it sat there on the dining room table, watching me as I had coffee or ate supper, waving its pretty head and crinkled leaves til I finally succumbed. This is the resulting sketch. Horrible light as always and fuzzy photo resulting.
Did I mention that I hate drawing flowers?
8 comments:
Well goodness Jeanette, when I saw the picture my first thought was "But Jeanette hates drawing flowers". So yes, you have mentioned that you hate drawing flowers! :-)
I have the exact same pot of primulas in my house (from the supermarket too no less). It is my way of dealing with the weather outside.
But hey as for inspiration, it sounds like a weird type of passive aggressive bullying to me...finally succumbing to do something you dislike? Ah, methinks you have been overcome by a bit of winter madness (or perhaps you have just been listening to our politican's on their first day back at work).
Anyway, even with the horrible lighting and the fuzzy photo, I can say that I like your sketch - I especially like the blossoms. Now be kind to yourself and remove the posies from your dining table and go grab some fruit or something... :-)
Funny Teresa. Yes, I have this love/hate relationship with flowers. I like to push myself to do things that I don't enjoy doing, simply to prove to myself that I can do them. That's where the primula sketch came from.
Winter madness has a role to play for sure and current politics....well...sigh.
Its still on the dining table, but I"m immune to it now... :)
Jeanette,
For someone who dislikes drawing flowers, you've produced a thoughtful sketch. Perhaps it's a relationship waiting to happen. For me there is no more worthy subject for art making. Flowers have everything- beauty, curves, colour, symbolism, history, etc. It's the one thing I paint that I find actually uplifting. I highly recommend them. I'll keep checking back to your wonderful blog to see how it goes.
Margaret
Margaret, thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate flowers, but don't often have a burning desire to draw them. Occasionally I do like to test the waters and see what I can come up with, but they're not usually what inspires me.
I don't think the relationship will be nurtured, but you never know. It might be just around the corner. :)
Thats funny, Jeanette! I feel exactly the same way!
Great sign of spring though!
this is funny because I dislike painting still lifes and landscapes so i didn't. now it seems i'm being forced to tackle landscapes with my current work and i've discovered i have much to learn. ideally, i'd love to be able to paint any subject so i'm never caught off guard should i choose to veer off in a new direction artwise. you never know when you will get a concept in your head and find you are limited in what you can achieve because you limited your subject matter. i think you are very wise to push yourself with an uncomfortable subject. you never know when a flower will be needed in a future project. i think you did this primrose proud!
great job, jeanette, especially since you don't care for drawing them :) You picked a tough plant to nail with their leaves but I hope you'll do more.
I think we all have the capability of drawing a subject, but the level of interest we have in that subject is what creates specialties.
I can draw anything, but prefer animals or people. That's what gives me the most pleasure to draw or paint.
I wonder if some of our past experiences in learning art reflect on what our areas of interest funnel into. I predominantly learned through life drawings, portraits, farm animals etc. Perhaps that is where the influence came from.
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