Georgia O'Keefe Flowers

Materials Needed:

*Watercolors

*Cup

*Water

*Various sizes of brushes

*Paper towels

*Salt

*Large sheet of watercolor paper

*Letter-sized heavy weight card stock paper

*Scissors

*Masking tape

This project is in inspiration of Georgia O’Keefe’s famous paintings of various flowers. This project helps to study how to control and practice/master watercolor techniques. These various techniques create an expressive quality, turning the simplest of objects into a thing of abstract beauty. This is an exercise of looking at objects in different perspectives and creating a story or an expressive quality of watercolor techniques.

*For a tutorial on this project, visit Silver Magpie Art and/or Kid Art in the Classroom*
To begin with this project, I was given a choice of various flowers. I chose what I believe was a yellow chrysanthemum. After choosing a flower, I then took the heavy weight card stock paper and measured a 1”X1” square in the center. I gently folded a small crease in the middle of the square and cut with the scissors to start a hole. I then carefully cut out the 1” square. I used this piece of paper with the square hole as a viewfinder to crop an image from the live flower that I had.

I placed the flower in several positions and angles and looked at it through various cropping and distances with the viewfinder. Once I found a cropping that I liked, I drew it in a sketchbook with all of its details. I found three cropped images with my viewfinder that I then recorded in my sketchbook with details. This process helped me to plan out my composition. I picked the composition I liked best and began working on the final product.

Taking the large sheet of watercolor paper, I cut it into a square. I then took masking tape and taped down the edges of the paper onto the table to help keep the paper from moving, and will also allow the paper to stretch and dry flat after I finished painting. With my detailed drawing in hand and all my painting supplies in front of me, I began to block out the general shape of the flower and its petals with a very washed color of orange. Once the first layer was down, I began adding layers on top of the original, creating shadows and highlights. I created the shadows by adding blue to the orange. Adding blue darkened and neutralized the orange creating an interesting and natural looking shadow. When I got to the very dark darks, which was the bases of the petals and the center of the flower, I then began to add very small amounts of black to help the shadow thicken. For the highlights and the ends of the petals, I used a bright yellow. After putting in these colors, I blended them by using a clean wet brush and scrubbing them together. I continued to add these layers on top of one another to add more volume and depth. In the negative space around the flower, I added a wet on wet mixture of purple and blue to compliment the yellow and orange of the flower. I added the green stem by adding thick pigment to a previous layer of straight water. I also added sketchy quick, less watered down outlines with the darker color as well.

Once I felt that I had created enough highlights and shadows, I went back over the shadows with water and sprinkled salt in those areas. Some areas are thicker than other with the salt, and created an abstract, painterly feel. Some of the lines became non-existent and blended with other layers of color creating a blurring effect. Once the piece was completely dry and the paper had stretched and flattened, I carefully removed the tape and rubbed off all of the salt sticking to the paper.

I learned so much from this project. I realized that I am not a very patient person and cannot wait for layers to dry, even with a hairdryer. It was also difficult working with the paper as it began to buckle from the water content. When it did that, my paint began to pool and I had to compensate by constantly spreading the paint around. I learned that I was forced to wait for the very wet under layers to dry before I could proceed because the paper itself would not allow me to add any more paint without it all pooling and mixing. This is a time consuming project that requires a ton of patience and developed skills. I have not had much experience with watercolors, and would definitely love to keep learning the techniques and getting the hang of waiting for layers to dry before continuing.