Composing new arrangements

The Easter Lillies in the stores inspired me to compose some fresh photographic reference for some new paintings.  I thought I'd compose outside, might make for some interesting backgrounds, though the lighting was a little flatter than I'd have liked.

My eldest son, was home from school (mildly) sick. He helped out, though he also played with some toy cars and kept sneaking them in to my compositions! :-)

One of the best parts, at the end of an intensive photo shoot, is eating the proceeds - though the flowers don't taste that good!

Rebuilding, Reinventing, Rejuvenating

Following the theme from a few weeks ago, when I took a new vase of flowers and placed it in an old painting with a new color theme; I decided to take it one step further. Altering everything, taking elements from other paintings, and combining them with color schemes from another painting and finally designing them in their own unique 'fabricated' composition.

First, I took my vase of Irises, which were mixed in color and turned them all white. I then placed them in a color scheme and design based from this painting (below).

 Clematis, Star fruit and limes on white 

Size 24X36      Acrylic on board

I then took elements/objects from this painting below and repositioned them within the new painting.

 Tall arrangement with tangerines and green vase 

Size 44X30       Acrylic on board

The end result of this amalgamation is dramatic.

Irises with Purple & Gold 

Size 24X36          Acrylic on board

Another interpretation

Usually I work completely from compositions that I carefully arrange and photograph. I then work from a print of the photograph, I find this process gives me a sense of removal from the original subject and stops me from painting it too carefully or literally. Thus it allows me to be more creative with greater ease (You can read more about this process in older blog posts). Very, very occasionally I choose to paint a subject that has been created whole heatedly from my imagination. This is very rare, and in these instances I use reference material for the subjects themselves, but the composition and lighting will be created from my mind.

For these paintings below however, I did something a little different. I photographed a new arrangement of flowers in a vase (Irises), I then took compositions and subjects from old paintings and worked my new flowers into these designs with fresh colors, these are the results of this process -

 Irises with Papaya and Kiwi

Size 48X23            Acrylic on board

 

The original painting that the composition and some objects were taken from.

 Blue Iris on blue

Size 36X24          Acrylic on board

The original painting that the composition and some objects were taken from.

Working in this method, gave me a fresh perspective and challenge within the painting. The painting subject thus provide some familiarity and answers but also yielded uncharted ground and fresh challenges.