Basking in the sun

After doing all those flowers in the small 5 by 7 format, I finally had the courage to plunge into a larger one. Till a week ago, there were huge poppies all over my neighborhood, and the red color just called out to me. I love anything red and this is no exception. More so when it is bathed in the morning sunlight. I generally photograph all my floral references in the morning light.

Everyday after I drop my daughter in the kindergarten, I take a little walk around with my camera. Until recently, I used to drop her in my bike and get back quickly. But of late, my little one has started cycling to the kindergarten. Oh yeah, my tiny girl is big enough to cycle by herself now! So on our way, we go chit chatting about the flowers all around and one my way back I pause to click them one by one. Many a time I take a detour and get more references out of my way too. I have to really give it to the Germans, the way they maintain their gardens just blows me away. Each garden is so impeccably crafted and so colorful. This was from one such garden near where I live.

While I have seen poppy fields in paintings and poppies grow in a big group, I had never seen huge poppies like this one. This is not from a group of flowers, just one or two of them that are as big as my face perhaps :-) I thought they were perfect to tackle on a large canvas and went ahead. Though I had quite a few references, the lighting in this one was what I was most pleased with and hence started with it. Might do more of the big poppies from my other references. Let's see.

This painting is heavily textured, as I have first done the flowers with heavy acrylic gel. The canvas has been primed with black gesso and then the initial textures sculpted with gel. I have then painted the whole image largely with the palette knife. I did not use the gel on the foliage, as I wanted the flowers a little more three dimensional than the foliage. The leaves are just done with the knife and are sufficiently textured.

Basking in the sun
Palette Knife on gallery wrapped canvas, 20 by 28 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan
$480.00 + $60.00 shipping worldwide.

I have also given some detailed views, to get a better idea of the textures and color. Do take a look and let me know what you think.