Impressionist Garden Art, Climbing Red Roses - Summer Scent

Summer Scent by Marion Hedger

Oil palette knife painting 

24x30cm, MDF canvas panel

AVAILABLE

The blue pergola this rose and the pink rose was built by my husband. It took quite some time to persuade him but I am so pleased they are built. They provide the perfect support and backdrop to the roses.

White Hibiscus oil painting and reworked Pink Hibiscus painting

White Hibiscus Palette knife painting

Oil on MDF panel

15x15cm (6x6inch)

Bid now in the Daily Paintworks auction

Another hibiscus painting for the wetcanvas.com monthly challenge. This painting has a good impasto texture. The edges of the board have been painted black, making it ideal for display on a plate stand or framed in a floating frame.

Reworked Pink Hibiscus

Pink Hibiscus palette knife painting

Oil on MDF panel

15x15cm (6x6cm)

Available for purchase 62€ int. shipping included

I made a few changes to this - I altered the stamen on the top flower, slightly changed the twigs and added a touch of green to indicate leaves. See the original post here

Peach Roses, oil Palette knife painting

Peach roses oil painting

Palette knife painting

Oil on box canvas

15x20cm (6x8inch)

Day 26 of the challenge

Beautiful roses for day 26 of the challenge (only 4 more days to go)

I am not sure about this painting, it doesn't quite work for me, although the roses have some lovely impasto passages on this. I wonder if the background is just to fussy. I may go back into it and calm it down giving it a more even colour - or maybe there is just too much in this for a small painting?

Let me know what you think about this one.

WIN A MINI TREASURE PAINTING
I am currently preparing my first Newsletter which will go out at the end of this month. To celebrate this, I am holding a raffle for the sunflower miniature treasure painting. All you have to do is subscribe to my newsletters which I plan to isuue once every month - see the side bar for the subscription box. The draw will be held on the 7th February and the winner announced on the 8th.


Some close-ups of the impasto

Red Tulips flower arrangement palette knife painting

Red Tulips flower arrangement

Palette knife painting

Oil on box canvas

15x20x1.5cm (6x8x0.6inch)

The sides are painted black,

 so can be hung with or without a frame

Day 23 in the 30 day challenge
SOLD
 

More red and more tulips for day 23 in the challenge. I love this red colour, it is Scarlet Lake by Winsor and Newton. I like to use it straight from the tube for a luscious red colour. When mixed with white it gives a lovely soft peachy/pink colour.

See yesterday's tulip painting here

About this painting
I find that reds can quickly lose their vibrancy when the paint dries. To help the red stay bright, I always underpaint with yellow.

Close-up of the knife work

Summer Light still life Palette knife Impressionist painting, Day 17

Summer Light still life after Henri le Sidaner

Palette knife painting

Oil on canvas panel

24x30 cm (10" x 12")

Day 17 in the 30 day challenge

Available in my Etsy Store

Another painting based on a Henri le Sidaner painting. This one had a lot of details with all those items on the table which were hard to capture with a palette knife. I should have reduced the number of items and just concentrated on the light. I changed the grapes from the original, to the bowl in the front. Initially I was just going to paint the cloth without anything there, but it did need something green to balance the greens in the grass.

Close-ups of the knife work

Interior Light, after Henri le Sidaner palette knife painting - day 16 of the 30 day challenge

Interior Light, after Henri le Sidaner

Pallete knife painting

Oil on archival canvas panel

18x24cm (approx 7x10")

Day 16 of the monthly challenge

Available for auction on Daily Paintworks

I combined two challenges with this painting. The 30 day challenge and this weeks 'Interiors' challenge on Daily Paintworks. I searched the internet for suitable ideas and came across Henri le Sidaner, a French impressionist I had not heard of before. His sense of light is wonderful and he paints many interior scene. This painting is based on  "Intérieur, Lumière de la Fenêtre," (interior, light from the window) a painting that was 'lost' and then found again in 2013, see here

This painting was more difficult to paint than I thought it would be and it took a long time. I learned a lot about trying to get the light and shade just right, although I think I could still have lightened the lights and half shadows some more. I also found I was fiddling too much for the size of the painting - trying to put in too much detail - after all my painting was an 'impression of the impressionist' style.
I have another one of his paintings lined up to copy. I shall see if I can control my tones more in the next one.

I'd appreciate any comments and observations you have about this one.

Some close-ups

Provence poppies No. 2 impressionist painting - Day 10, 30 paintings challenge

Provence poppies No. 2 impressionist painting

Palette knife painting in oils

15x15cm (6"x6")
Day 10, 30 day challenge

Available for purchase, 52€ (icl. shipping)

 A sister painting to Provence Poppies No. 1 I'm addicted to this scene and have painted it many times. The impasto surface adds character to this painting.

Some close-ups

Champs de Lavande et Tournesols Provence Landscape palette knife painting

Champs de Lavande et Tournesols -

Fields of Lavender and sunflowers

Provence landscape palette knife painting

Oil on box canvas

15 x 20 (6x8") x 1.5cm
Available in my Etsy store

Take time out to Play

At the beginning of the week I was running out of ideas of what to paint and I was questioning my use of oils. I wanted to do something less representational than my normal work and had a hankering to create abstracts. 

I spent two days playing around with mono-prints as well as ink and gouache resist. I had never done either and I didn't quite know the techniques, so I read up on them and off I went!

I didn't produce anything worthy, but I had a really good time. Since then I have been re-energised. I have finished several small paintings, have plenty of good ideas milling around and I have finished my larger painting I posted last week (keep tuned tomorrow to see it).

Conclusion

Play is good for you.

Isolated in Provence - Mini Landscape tips part 2

Isolated in Provence

Oil, palette knife painting

15x20cm (6x8inch) box canvas

65€ International shipping included

This is the finished painting from yesterday. Let's see if I covered all the points discussed:

• All four corners should be different.
  - The leaves solve the problem of the sky corners
• Things should not line up
  - I changed the shape of the mountain and added another layer to increase the sense of distance
  - The bottom of the fence posts do not line up
  - The foliage is no longer in straight lines
• Verticals should be an interesting shape
  - The tree has a few indentations and perhaps could be more 'gnarled', but I think the light on the trunk compensates for this. As this is a small painting, this should be sufficient.
• Ensure items of a group are different sizes
  - The fence posts are all different sizes and the cross braces are on longer in a straight line. Now I have uploaded the photo, I see the cross braces are parallel, but I think I shall leave this.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Meandering Path, palette knife painting in oils

Meandering Path, Landscape painting

15x15cm (6"x6") oil on canvas panel

Palette knife on a multi-coloured ground 
To purchase this painting CLICK HERE

These small sized paintings are great for trying different things. They are large enough to give a good effect and small enough to quickly complete. I painted three of the same scene trying different techniques. This one is painted with a palette knife and painted onto a coloured ground of cool colours for the darks and warm colours for the lights. I also wanted to work on my tree technique - trying not to be too detailed but with enough information. I also just wanted to suggest the foreground. I quite like the result where everything is just suggested, leaving much to the viewers imagination.

I will post the other two over the next couple of days.

Pretty in Purple, Provence landscape palette knife painting

Pretty in Purple, Provence Landscape

18 x 24 cm oil on canvas panel

Here is the final version of the painting I posted a couple of days ago HERE. It didn't need much to finish it off. I like the way the foreground turned out, nice and suggestive.
Here is a close-up of the foreground where you can see some of the drips left in-situ. It's definitely something I will try again.

Poppy Field Provence palette knife painting

Poppy Field Provence

Palette knife painting

15x20cm (approx 6"x8") Oil on board
SOLD

It will soon be time to go and see the lavender fields blooming. Along the way there are many hay meadows that are awash with colour. The poppies, in particular always call out to be painted. 

This is painted on a pink ground which is allowed to show through to add sparkle to the painting. Using the palette knife and thick impasto paint, allows the colours to remain true. Here is a close-up of some of the knife work

These little paintings take on a life of their own, and tell me which way to go LOL. 

You may like my other poppy meadow paintings HERE and HERE 

Touch of Provence Sunshine palette knife painting

Touch of Provence Sunshine

Palette knife painting

15x20cm (approx 6"x8") Oil on boxed canvas
Sold

We've had a long period of rain, so to give myself a lift, I painted another painting of the sunflower fields. This has a slightly different feel to the first Sunshine in Provence paintings. (see HERE). It is not quite as textured as the previous two.

Again painted with a palette knife to keep it loose and lively.
Here is a close up of the knife work.

Lavender Haze Provence, palette knife painting

Lavender Haze Provence oil painting

18x24 cm (approx 7"x10")

Oil, palette knife painting
THIS PAINTING IS SOLD

Another Provence landscape painting from photos taken last year. These small landscapes are a joy and a challenge to paint at the same time. Getting the proportions, perspective and sense of distance correct can be difficult, but the idea and colours  make it worthwhile. Using the palette knife gives a nice looseness to the painting and it is impossible to fiddle.

You might like to see another version of a Provence landscape paintings HERE

Haut Alpes Plain Impressionist oil painting

Haut Alpes Plain

Oil on canvas panel

18x24cm (approx 7"x10")

Available by Auction on Daily Paintworks

A small landscape, this time using a brush. In the Haut Alpes (France) there are the flat plains between the peaks. Many of them seem not to be farmed and have lovely meadow flowers. I tried to get a sense of the distance in this and chose a different viewpoint than I normally do. Painted on a pale burnt sienna ground, which pokes through in a few places.

Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Provence Poppy Extravaganza palette knife oil painting

Provence Poppy Extravaganza

Oil palette knife painting

15 x 20cm (6" x 8") on box canvas

55€ Click HERE to purchase

This is the last in the current series of poppy paintings. Although, as I get so much pleasure from painting them and I still have lots of photo references, who knows .... LOL

Painted with a palette knife, on a highly textured ground with a pink underpainting which is allowed to show through the finished painting.
Another view of the poppy meadows can be seen HERE 

Path through the Poppy Meadow, oil painting SOLD

Path through the poppy meadow by Marion Hedger

Oil palette knife painting

15 x 20cm (6" x 8") on box canvas

THIS PAINTING IS NOW SOLD

I really love painting these small Provencal scenes. They always take me back to my trips to the interior Var and Haut Provence region.
Another view of the poppy meadows can be seen HERE

Autumn Vineyard Vista palette knife painting

Autumn Vineyard Vista

18 x 24 cm on artist quality canvas panel

Oil, palette knife painting on a textured surface.

SOLD

The third of my autumn vineyard paintings. I shall have to pay a return visit to these Provence vineyards in the summer, when the grapes are growing.

Here is a close-up detail of the knife work


See the other two paintings in this Autumn Vineyard group HERE

Autumn Vineyard Provence oil painting

Autumn Vineyard Provence by Marion Hedger

18x24cm, palette knife painting

oil on canvas panel
Another vineyard scene from the same area as yesterday's painting.

AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE From my Etsy Shop

Painted with a palette knife on heavily textured canvas panel.

Sunshine in Provence No.2, oil painting

Sunshine in Provence No.2 by Marion Hedger

15x20 cm (approx 6" x 8")

Oil on box canvas, painted with a palette knife.

A sister painting to the one posted yesterday but with a more distant view, from the batch of photos taken while on a photo shoot of the lavender fields near Valensole. Scattered amongst the lavender fields were fields of sunflowers, quite a contrast to all the lavender elsewhere.

This was painted using a palette knife and has an impasto texture.

AVAILABLE FROM MY Etsy store

Click Here to see one of my lavender paintings of the same area