Silk painting a peony from life. The silk is taped to the window and sill to stretch it. As usual, click image to enlarge for more detail.
I started painting flowers on silk scarves a few weeks ago. At first I looked at photos and illustrations before drawing directly onto the silk with resist. But soon I took the clippers out into the garden to gather my floral models. After working from life, there was no going back. It is just so much more exciting to have these graceful models posing in front of me. Their endless variations never cease to amaze and inspire. And staying deeply inspired really is one of the keys to life-long creativity because an inspired artist finds the time where there is no time and overcomes obstacles even when there seems to be no solution. Noting what makes you the most inspired is of primary importance! For me it’s nature.
You will find instructions for meditative seeing /drawing flowers at: the grace of gazing.
To watch a video of drawing roses from life: drawing and painting roses. Other lessons on drawing / painting flowers have been posted – poke through the archives and you will find them.
The garden volunteer above the silk painted flowers that it it inspired.
The iris and it's model - detail of silk painting
In a few months WeeklyArtLesson will be posting videos that explain the steps for how to do silk painting. Are you interested in that topic??
LOVE the silk scarves. Thanks for the demo in art group last Wed. I DO want to see more info here in the weeklyartlesson. YAY!
p.s. I also LOVE your statement: “…an inspired artist finds the time where there is no time and overcomes obstacles even when there seems to be no solution. Noting what makes you the most inspired is of primary importance!” I should print that out and paste it all over my house.
Wonderful lesson, Lillian. Beautiful painting! Yes, I am very interested in more on how to paint on silk and look forward to that post. I agree that painting flowers from life and painting from nature inspires me. I went to see Van Gogh’s Iris path painting and a beautiful waterlily painting on loan from a private collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday. After looking at the reproductions online, I was shocked to see how large these paintings were. Were they painted from life? Or could Monet keep his work fresh and loose in the studio because he painted outside so much?