Flower Tree

"Flower Tree" ran as a live Guided Painting class in 2016. I offered two paintings that day, “ Flower Tree” and “ Enid”, a gorgeous violet elephant. It was the first time that I had offered a "double bill", you could choose one or the other. It proved to be a challenging afternoon. I had a couple of students who went completely off-piste. While I was checking on everyone's progress I was confused by their “ interesting” colour mixes, it turned out they weren’t bothering to read the instructions and were "doing their own thing”. They just couldn't work out why their's didn't look like mine. If you want to do your own thing with a guided class that's totally cool, just don’t expect the same result as the original. I write instructions to help you achieve a good approximation of the original.

Sometimes I don't have a grand plan for Guided Painting, "Flower Tree" was simply an image I wanted to paint. I love gardens and this reminded me of beautiful grand English gardens with rows of topiary. 

 This painting will take time. It's a fun image and although fairly simple there are a lot of elements and a wide range of colours. I rated it intermediate as it’s not difficult, but does involve a lot of colour mixing. The forms are simple but it takes time to build the image. Don’t forget to wash your brush well and change your water often. 

I simplified this online class from the original live painting class version. There are less small circles making up the large circle and I cut down on the colours I used. You can see the original version on the final sheet of the instructions. The fun part is painting in the petals and flower centres at the end. You can be as creative as you like at that stage. My background is in textiles and decorating is a natural urge which I find difficult to suppress.