The scientific name for Dragon fruit is "Pitahaya". This type of fruit, originally native to Mexico, is part of the cactus family. It was originally transplanted to Central America and then to other parts of the world. These days it is mainly cultivated in South East Asian countries. It grows best in dry tropical climates with moderate amounts of rain. The skin is red or bright pink and leathery and the inside is creamy white with crunchy black seeds. The skin is not eaten, only the white fleshy part.
I first saw and tasted dragon fruit many years ago on a holiday in Singapore. It is an incredibly visually striking fruit, mostly for the vibrant pink and tropical green colour of the skin. I later painted a tropical fruit still life (above left) mostly because I was obsessed with the incredible colour of the dragon fruit. The actual taste of this fruit does not particularly appeal to me. I'm not a fan of the taste of most tropical fruit and this one is more of a textural experience. The flavour is quite bland. I don't really understand why people would enjoy eating it. I found some in a local market here in Sydney once and bought one to paint, but didn't end up eating it... I have it in my mind to do some further smaller painting studies of this wonderfully visual fruit in the future. The above painting, completed a few years ago has sold, but prints are available by clicking on the painting above.
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Poppies are short lived perennial plants. The petals are crumpled in the bud and as blooming finishes, they lie flat before falling away. The petals are showy and may be of any colour. They are generally in bloom in late Spring or early Summer.
The symbolism of the poppy has long been used as that of sleep, peace and death. Sleep because the opium extracted from some varieties is a sedative and death because of the blood red colour of the red poppy. This sleep / death symbolism is evoked in the famous novel "The Wizard of Oz." The symbol of the poppy is also used for wartime remembrance. In many countries around the world, artificial poppies are worn to commemorate those who died in war. Poppies are actually one of my all time favourite flowers. I really love the delicate papery, crumpled translucent quality of the petals. I'm really interested in trying to evoke this translucence with watercolours. I also love the long spindly stems and how they explode in a pop of colour at the top of these long spindly stems when they bloom. I could gaze at these flowers for hours and find every detail about them fascinating. Above left is a recent painting I have completed of a bunch of colourful poppies I bought from the shop. Above right is a old painting I completed quite a few years ago of a Himalayan poppy. The original sold a long time ago, but unfortunately I didn't take a high resolution photo of it, so it will never be available in print form. Below left is a red poppy that I painted in a more freer, spontaneous style, trying to capture the essence of the flower. This one is available as a print by clicking on the photo. Below right is one of Georgia O'Keefe's most famous paintings of a Red Poppy (1927). It is a perfect example of the macro modernist style for which she became most famous. I bought a book that looked interesting called "Urban watercolour sketching" by Felix Scheinberger (2011). It's got some really cool ideas - more illustration type of an approach to watercolour with sketching in pen or pencil and then using the watercolour to enhance the illustration. Scheinberger describes watercolour as not just a technique, but an attitude, being wilful and anarchical ! He goes on to state that the key to creating good watercolour art is to strike a balance between control and letting go. I think I could benefit from more experimentation in letting go with my watercolour paintings. My floral stuff is mostly very tightly controlled and I can understand that to move my art to a higher level, I should practice more freestyle techniques.
With some inspiration from a page on food (above right), I tried to sketch and paint some vegetables (above left). They're kind of just little illustrations which I will use later to put on products in my design store www.zazzle.com/juicyhues. The author illustrates and paints a lot of urban type scenes such as buildings, cityscapes and people. Hopefully I have time to make my way through the book over the coming months and experiment with a little bit of urban watercolour sketching and painting ! Winter has definitely hit Sydney and the nights and early mornings are very cold. Pansies are cool weather flowers and a very hardy Winter variety of flower. The name pansy is interchangeable with viola as they are hybrid flowers from the same species.. Pansies are striking with heart shaped, overlapping petals in bright colours, often bi-coloured. They can withstand frost and some varieties have been cultivated to withstand snow.
I painted this pansy (above left) quite a few years ago - I think it is one of my earlier paintings. I was inspired by the bright colours of the petals and thought the bleeding out of the centre of the petals would make a good subject for a watercolour painting. I would like to paint more pansies and really focus on showing the way the colours bleed into each other and interact on the petals. The above original was sold quite a few years ago but is still available as a print by clicking on the image above left. Below left and right are two pansy paintings by Georgia O'Keefe. Black pansy was painted in 1926 and White pansy in 1927. Her paintings of pansies focus more on the curving shapes of the petals rather than the bleeding colours contained in the petals.. The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment. The word Kimono literally means "thing to wear". Kimono are T-shaped robes worn to the ankle with long, wide sleeves. They are wrapped around the body and secured with a sash called an obi which is tied at the back. They are worn with traditional footwear and split toe socks.
Today, Kimono are worn mostly by women on special occasions, although a few older women still wear the kimono on a daily basis. Traditionally, kimono are sewn by hand and are made of silk , silk brocade, silk crepe and satin weaves. Modern day kimono are widely available in less expensive fabrics as well. The pattern of the kimono can determine which season it should be worn. For example, butterflies or Cherry Blossom patterns are worn in Spring, watery designs are worn in Summer, Autumn designs include Japanese Maple leaf patterns and Winter designs include bamboo, Pine trees and plum blossoms. The photo I took in Gion, Kyoto a few months ago (above middle) is of some tourists dressed up in modern day kimono. The bright colours and yellow flower motif suggests they are Spring time kimono. The fabric is made of cotton, or possibly synthetic fabric, but I was still inspired enough by the bright colours, especially of the striking and beautiful obi designs, to paint them. Below are some examples of more traditional Spring kimono featuring Cherry Blossom and flower motifs. The cooler Autumn weather is the blooming time for these beautiful types of Roses known as "Cornelia" Roses or Hybrid Musk roses. Their pink musk colour ranges from a vivid pink with yellow centre shading, turning to a light musk pastel pink/ almost white colour as the flower ages. These roses are thornless with bronze green foliage.
My painting of the Cornelia Rose (left) was done a few years ago and was copied from a gardening magazine photo. I was attracted to the pastel colours of the petals, as I had not worked much with a pastel colour scheme, and wanted to see how I could paint the lighter/ almost white coloured flowers using a more muted colour scheme than I normally use. The dark green background helps to bring out the musky pastel pink tones, and I found that I needed to actually incorporate a rainbow of colours into the scheme to highlight the muted pastel tones. I wasn't sure about the outcome at first, as it was a slight departure in style for me at the time, but it sold reasonably quickly and looking at it now, I can see how it captures the musky pastel tones of the original roses. On the right is a painting of a pink rose macro style by Georgia O'Keeffe. It's not a Cornelia Rose, but I like the modernist way she abstracts the flower form by painting in the macro style. I always try to incorporate this style and approach with my large rose paintings. As the cool Autumn weather hits Sydney, a large and visually striking flowering plant begins to bloom. Protea is the common name of a genus of South African flowering plant - named after the Greek God Proteus who could change his form at will, as Proteas have such a variety of forms.
The Proteaceae family to which Protea belong is an ancient one dating back to Gondwana land 80 million years ago. Sub families of the Protea are found in Australia and South America and other small segments of Gondwana in Africa and East Asia. I painted the Protea a couple of years ago now (above left), as I wanted to paint a few styles of Australian flowers for a change - though I didn't realise at the time that the Protea is not really a native Australian flower, but can be commonly found here. I found the large red / orange colourful flower very satisfying to paint. The original sold fairly quickly, proving that it is a very popular flower. I've also sold quite a few magnets and other gift items with this painting, so it is quite a popular motif. Margaret Preston's woodcut print Proteas are very famous (above right) and her style is always influential when trying to paint Australian themed native plants. The Cherry Blossom (or Sakura in Japanese) is the flower of the Japanese Cherry tree. It is said to be native to the Himalayas, but is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisphere and can be found in Europe, Korea, China, Japan and parts of the US. Most varieties cultivated for ornamental purposes do not produce fruit.
"Hanami" is the popular tradition of picnicking under the Sakura. The blossoming of the Sakura lasts for about a week or two and reaches Tokyo and Kyoto usually at the end of March or early April, signalling the Spring season arriving. At this time, Japanese people hold flower viewing parties and celebrate the beauty of the Cherry Blossom. The Cherry Blossom represents the ephemeral nature of life - the transience, extreme beauty and quick death is symbolic of mortality. I was lucky enough to visit Tokyo during the Sakura season and took many photos of the beautiful pink and white colours of the blossoms. They look best against a bright blue sky, unfortunately it was cloudy and rainy most of the time I was in Japan, so was not able to get the nice shots of the pink against the blue background and had to improvise the colours in my above painting. The older trees are valued for their thick clusters of the pale pink flower. It was very spectacular to see many of these trees in a row in some of the parks and flower viewing areas of Tokyo. Sakura are very popular motifs in traditional Japanese painting. Below are some woodblock prints by famous Ukiyo-e artist Hokusai. My above left small painting tries to capture this traditional style of painting the Sakura. The above middle painting was done in a modern style from a photo I took in one of Tokyo's parks.
Once a year, Kyoto's Geisha community puts on a show allowing ordinary people to see Geisha perform their arts. The most famous show is the Miyako Odori. "Miyako" means capital city and "Odori" means dance. So the Miyako Odori is the Capital city dances, as Kyoto used to be the capital city of Japan. This performance is also known as the "Cherry Blossom Dances" as they take place in Cherry Blossom season (April). The dances are held in the historic Gion Kobu Kaburenjo Theatre.
We booked in for a tea ceremony first, where we saw a Geisha and Maiko (apprentice) prepare the tea. We then entered the theatre to watch the show. Each performance has about eight scenes which depict aspects of Japanese life. Performances include dancing, singing and mini-dramas with an orchestra of Geisha playing traditional instruments. The performance lasts about an hour. The kimono and costumes were truly amazingly beautiful, as were the Geishas and their dancing, and it was very interesting to see the traditional arts being performed after having read so much about it in various books and novels. If you ever have the chance to visit one of these performances - I thoroughly recommend it ! Some more detailed information about the Miyako Odori can be found here: http://www.unmissablejapan.com/events/miyako-odori Below are some Geisha paintings I have done in the past - all available as posters and prints: So last year and this year I've been trying to get into this "daily painting" movement, where the aim is to complete small scale paintings on a regular basis, quicker and more free style type works - like small studies - to help improve overall technique and to allow more experimentation. I really like this idea, though have not been able time wise to do this on a daily basis, I am trying to do these small studies as often as I can. I put the better ones up for sale and people seem to be buying them every now and then, which is an extra bonus !
These abstract flowers above and below are loosely based on non specific flower forms and the aim was to try to experiment with some wet on wet watercolour painting techniques, where paint has been applied on top of a previous colour that has not yet fully dried. Here you can see how the paint spreads around to create interesting effects and interesting colour mixes in the damp area. The paint will not spread out beyond the damp area to the dry area, so the outline of the flower will remain clean. The drips in this painting were deliberate to create stem like suggestions. The paper will need to be almost upright to create drip effects, whereas the paper was flat to help the colour spread around the damp area, so in these paintings, I needed to manipulate the position of the paper as I was painting. These quick abstract studies are very useful for exploring techniques and pushing my art out of my comfort zone to learn new things.... |
AuthorSacha Grossel is a practising Visual Artist from Australia. Archive
February 2019
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