Spooky flowers

Here’s an exercise for my students: grab a fine-tipped Sharpie pen and head to a discount art shop to pick up some canvas boards. I like to start by applying a base colour to the canvas using acrylic paint—red is my go-to, though it might seem a bit unconventional! Then, bring your Sharpie and board along and treat the board like a piece of paper. Sketch a rough outline of what you see. I’ve done two exercises here, one using 6 x 6” stretched canvases. I wanted to keep things small. Again, I painted these with a red undercoat and then used a Sharpie to sketch out the flowers arrangement (from my garden) before adding colour quickly with acrylic paint.

The two large canvas sketches below the first two are actually 12 x 10” canvas boards. These are great for sketching because they’re big enough to use almost like a sketchpad. The rigidity really helps when sketching on location. On the back of the canvas board, I added notes about the colours. I don’t use cameras, which I think is something to consider when you’re out sketching. There’s a discipline of mind that can be developed if you don’t rely on the camera. The 12x10 inch paintings are of Sledmere Walled Garden, which I would encourage you to visit. Just be sure to check the opening times before you go—they’re open on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday but not on Saturday, and they’re open on Sunday but not on Monday or Tuesday. The shop and children’s play area and animals park are now free and open all week.

The advantage of this approach is speed. The Sharpie pen helps you focus on the essential elements, which you can quickly put down. Adding colour notes on the reverse side then makes it easier to add colour later. I try to add colour quickly, ideally the same day.

This is 6x6 inch, click to enlarge to see how colour rather roughly applied.
Regardless, for me theses are important memories, full of integrity.

Sledmere, click to enlarge, see how the larger size allows paint to be applied more smoothly
Again, these were done in a few minutes, perhaps lack detail though they both are reminders of
the visit and are essentially correct.

Below are some of my art books, all first editions. All available from me direct, just drop me an email if interested.