floral dreams in a monochrome season

Today, I went to the painting class at Stella Niagara, in Lewiston, New York. The theme of the class was posies. That immediately makes me remember my kindergarten days, when we played "ring around the rosie, a pocket full of posies..." and then fell down in a heap of giggling children.

That was a long time ago.

Today, we painted posies. They are small flowers that grow in groups and are surrounded by very large leaves that curl. Above, you can see the drawing that I did on the watercolor paper. I tried to fill the page so I made the plants larger than life size. One of my most favorite artists in Georgia O'Keeffe, who painted extremely large flowers.

Posies come in a variety of colors, including red, pink, orange, and blue. I chose to paint blue posies.

To add interest, as well as depth, to blue petals, I used three different shades of blue. 

After I was finished with the petals, I began painting the leaves, using several colors.

The center of the flowers is yellow and it has a star shape. Also, I added detail to the leaves, including the pattern of veins.

This is the completed painting. I chose yellow and purple for the background. Yellow and purple are complementary colors (opposites on the color wheel). Also, there is a great deal of yellow in the painting so the background colors bring out the flower. The last thing that I did was to sharpen the edges.

So here you go. Flowers for a winter's day.