Gerberas are colourful flowers belonging to the daisy family. They are named after German botanist and doctor Traugott Gerbera. Native to tropical areas of South America, Africa and Asia, they are also commonly known as the Afican Daisy (above right is a painting of my African Daisy from about ten years ago). Gerberas are the fifth most popular cut flower in the world after the rose, carnation, chrysanthemum and tulip. I felt like painting a Gerbera because of the bright colours. I also thought it would be an interesting perspective as a macro close focus style. I love the warm colours of red, orange and yellow which are the dominant colours with a bit of purple here and there to highlight sections.
Daisies and Gerberas are such popular flowers, even my favourite artist Andy Warhol has focused on them. He did a series of Daisy art screen prints in 1982, so were some of his later artworks. I love their simple bold colours and design elements (below left). He also did a series experimenting with colours schemes and contrasts with his "Flower for Tacoma Dome" (1982) series (below right) All my daisy paintings are available as prints by clicking on the image. The Gerbera original watercolour painting is now for sale.
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Here is a real Summer flower, as the weather warms up in the Southern Hemisphere heading towards the hottest months of the year. African Daisies are also commonly known as Cape Daisies or Blue eyed Daisies, though their scientific name is Osteospermum. As their name suggests, they are commonly found in parts of Africa. These flowers are quite hardy and are also commonly found in flower beds in local parks and gardens in the Summer months. The petals are smooth and flat like a daisy and radiate out in a spoon shape. Colours can include lavender, pink, white and yellow.
My painting of the lavender coloured African Daisy (above left) is one of my earlier paintings. I was interested in the unusual perspective angle of looking across the flower from slightly below rather than painting it as a flat daisy. Daisies are such popular iconic flowers of Springtime / Summertime innocence. Above right is Andy Warhol's screen printed take on this popular, rather common motif. |
AuthorSacha Grossel is a practising Visual Artist from Australia. Archive
February 2019
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