Watercolors: Too Many Tulips
Once in a while (not too often), I’ll paint flowers.
Here’s one I did, when I decided to try tulips.
Oboy. By the time that painting was done, I never wanted to see a tulip again.
That was five years ago. I haven’t painted tulips since.
But I think I’m ready again.
Wonder if I should try any of these? …(or am I just asking to drive myself INSANE?)
Tags: original art, painting, tulips, watercolors
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July 19, 2008 at 9:54 am
Oh Friar!! your painting is totally one I’d hang. Especially given my in-laws’ and hubby’s Dutch background. They’re all about the tulips. Me, I love ‘em, too!!
That bottom pic is my fave. It almost already looks like a painting. Have at ‘er!!
But maybe do it in winter, when the flowers will be desires of your dreams.
July 19, 2008 at 10:26 am
@Steph
Some paintings take so much work, and I know I’d never do them again, that I hang them in my own house and keep them. This tulip painting is one of them.
I’ll probably do another one of these paintings, within the next 6 months. (But probably not until October….I take the summer off).
Right now, the bass and walleye are the desires of my dreams!
July 19, 2008 at 10:58 am
Nice tulip painting Friar. I don’t know why, but I’ve never painted a tulip. Now I might have to go try it.
July 19, 2008 at 11:37 am
Friar,
Aww. It’s very lovely. The whites, especially, have that luminous quality of the real thing. I love how they become little bowls of light when they’re in full bloom and the sun is strong.
I adore the last photo. That would be a beautiful painting. Go for it.
Regards,
Kelly
July 19, 2008 at 12:18 pm
@Wendi
Thanks!
Well, my advice for painting tulips is to pick a simpler painting that has maybe 3 or 4 flowers. Don’t try to go OCD and paint 20 like I did here (not for your first painting, at least!)
@Kelly
Again, thanks. I found the whites really tricky to do with watercolor….This painting was so tense, I could have gotten 9 blossoms right, but if I ruined the 10th, the whole painting would be ruined. That’s why I’m keeping this painting for myself (I don’t know if I could ever duplicate this).
People seem partial to the last photo. I might paint that one….but I might make it a bit more abstract and not try to get every blossom in detail.
July 21, 2008 at 11:36 am
Fried One — I like your tulips. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a real tulip, as in right in front of my face and not a photo.
July 21, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Really? They dont’ grow tulips where you live? (I’ve always had them around, ever since I was a kid…). It never occurred to me that someone might not have seen them.
They’re a really nice flower. But they’re only out for 2-3 weeks of the year, in May, and then they’re finished.
Maybe you gotta be in a certain temperate zone or something.
July 21, 2008 at 2:56 pm
They may sell them in a flower shop, I don’t know. I never go in those shops. Maybe folks do grow them here and I just miss them. Anything that only lives that long would be easy to miss around here. Besides, there is often still snow here in May.
July 21, 2008 at 3:23 pm
@Amy
Yeah, I hardly ever go into flower shops (except 1-2 times a year, for my Mom).
Snow in May? Sounds like Splat Creek! (I’ve seen Tulip blooms poking through the snow in Ontario).