A P(e)ony Parade

I have always painted flowers, but never really got hold of peonies. Yet, if there is a request for a painting, you find out what they look like exactly! The request to paint peonies for a bridal tea, was only the start. It led to many peony paintings and I am probably addicted to the subject now.

 

I produced a few in 2016, then attended Nancy Medina's course where I took lots of photographs for reference. Now I have ordered silk peonies from the Seychelles. They looked flattened and somewhat sad when they arrived, but as they stand in their vase, I notice that they look more beautiful each day as they relax and open.

 

Peonies featured in a two-women exhibition two weeks ago and is also on travelling show with the West Coast Art Fair after a Juried show, where the work was chosen to be exhibited.

 

Here, then, is the peony parade of paintings available and sold.



Peonies
500 mm x 400mm
This painting is currently on exhibition.
Let me know if you are interested or want to order a similar painting

Peaches 'n Cream Peonies
500mm x 400mm

Classic Peony
200mm x 200mm
SOLD

"Snow White" is my favourite
200mm x 200mm
Framed and available at R1500

This little set of white peonies were SOLD
180mm x 180mm
 

Close-up of the above set of two
180 x 180

Close-up of the set of two.
180mm x 180mm

The "peonies for a bridal tea" which started my interest in peonies

Three Violet Peonies
18Omm x 180mm
Framed and available at R960

The last three, in frames, all of them, are available at R860 each

I have more! So there will be a second post on my peonies a while from now.


 
 

Painting in Texas with Nancy Medina

I entered the hotel breakfast room, and there she was, petite, sweet Nancy Medina! For seven years I have hoped to meet her in person one day and to paint with her. The visit was made possible by my very kind children, who lives in Katy, Texas. Of course we had a lovely meeting and then went off to the course venue, the quaint New Braunfells Art Society building.

 

From the moment Nancy steps in front of a class, her professionalism shines through. Everything around her is pristine and organised. She speaks clearly, gently repeating terms as she goes into her presentation. We get used to her special terms and way of expression. I can start painting now, and I still hear her voice: "Make it darker, make it darker!"

 

The first thing you learn is to divide the palette into transparent and opaque colours. Watching Nancy work, you gain respect for those background layers, the colours which will eventually shine through everything, bringing light and depth into a painting. What follows is an album of our painting workshop.

 

Blogger friends, social media friends and now meeting up in real life

All surfaces (and the floor) was filled with fresh flowers and lovely displays

This is the palette that Nancy starts out  with every morning.
 Look at the delightful opaques on the right which she pre-mixes!
They are used at the closing stages of the painting.

A display of  Nancy Medina DVD's for sale

Out of a blurry background of transparent colour, the daisies are born

Wonderful things happening before our eyes!

So appealing!

Nancy arranging flowers under the spotlight.

In a surprisingly short time, a completed masterpiece by Nancy Medina!

OK, Girl, it's your turn now!!!


NEXT TIME: PAINTING IN TEXAS (it sounds like: Walking in Memphis!)

And to end with: Here is a live-stream lesson with Nancy Medina that you can watch just now!

 

Painting Nasturtiums

SOLD

I continue my series of posts on painting flowers, by looking at nasturtiums, showing older works as well as recent work. One can have these tiny bright flowers available at various times of the year and they grow most easily from seeds. Where I live in a nature reserve, they can easily take over the natural habitat, so I do not plant them, but go out to collect some from friends or in places where they grow wild.

In this post I show paintings done over the past few years. You will notice that I paint with the flowers close by to inspire me. One thing that I love to do, is work with 3 or 4 paintings to create sets.

A medley of small nasturtium paintings

SOLD

A set like this can fill a colourless corner with light and brightness.
Contact me at m.theron@wam.co.za to order sets

SOLD

This is my latest nasturtium painting.
By using the blues in the background, the bright colours of the leaves,
 petals and buds are emphasized.
It also provides a clean contrast for the little Delft vase.

Hello New Year Nasturtiums
by Marie Theron
150mm x 210mm
5" x 8"

It is important to do sketches of your subject and to learn the parts of the flowers.

Where I sit at the moment, I look upon a wonderful large bush filled with hibiscus flowers. In my next post I will show new as well as past work on the subject of hibiscus. 

Painting Poppies

Aren't they the most uplifting of flowers? In our warm country the vase life of poppies is not very long, but what joy they give, pushed into a jug or tumbler, as informal as possible. Where poppies are, there will be colour! 

We often had them as painting subjects in my watercolour courses. Once again, like with most flowers, I made sure that my students held a poppy in their spare hand while making the initial drawing. That is the only way one can discover the beautiful intricate folds of the petals, the splendid capsule form in the centre with stamen like the rays of the sun, and the grey-green stems.

Freshly picked poppies in various stages of popping open.
Photo: Marie Theron  ‪ ‪#‎artmatters‬

This design of "poppies blowing in the wind" appeared as a card in book stores during the 1990's

©Marie Theron 1991  ‪#‎artmatters‬

This is probably my oldest painting of poppies
©Marie Theron 1991  ‪#‎artmatters‬

Aquarelle pencils are such nice tools for getting the detail of poppies.
I enhanced the drawing with white designer's gouache.
©Marie Theron 1991  ‪#‎artmatters‬

A large watercolour 1993
©Marie Theron 1993  ‪#‎artmatters‬

Another large watercolour  1993
©Marie Theron 1993  ‪#‎artmatters‬

Noticing my poppies in watercolour, a friend gave me a commission to make an acrylic painting. It was a hit, and I stepped away from watercolours! I started the new era of 2000 as a painter and no longer as an art lecturer. I still love teaching, so please feel free to ask tips on anything. 

The painting that started my career in oils and acrylic painting  ‪#‎artmatters‬.

My Facebook Page is for you to ask any art-related question. Visit my FACEBOOK PAGE 

An apology: All the poppy paintings on my page has been sold. However, you may want to consider some lovely prints, available HERE, ON THE BLOG OF CAROL NELSON

Later this year I will attend a workshop with Nancy Medina in Texas. HAVE A LOOK AT THE VIBRANT POPPY PAINTING ON HER BLOG or THIS LOVELY SET BY NANCY

My Long Relationship with the Painting of Flowers

Lecturing my course Flowers in Watercolour at Rust en Vrede, Durbanville (1990's)

In the last blog post, I showed some recent rose paintings that I have done. But at 71 years of age themes come round and round again. So today, I will  revisit the past to show more roses and other flowers I have done.

During the years 1991 to 1999, I taught a course in Flowers in Watercolour. I taught this in Wynberg, at Constantia, at the Parow Sport Centre and at Bellville Art Centre and Rust en Vrede, Durbanville and I also toured to Vredendal, Rustenburg and Durban teaching courses. When my old computer gave in and I lost my data base, there were already over 500 people who had received my tuition in watercolours and various crafts. Among my students there were 7 doctors/ dentists, a boy who afterwards had a long career as a South African rugby captain, the wife of a famous national rugby figure, a Miss South Africa runner-up and many entertaining and interesting students. 

Something I was very pleased with was the commission to design sunflower gift wrap and other products for a well known company. I also did cards for them.

A very good  and popular Afrikaans book "Aromaterapie" published by Van Schaiks, had me and my sister in collaboration. It was her academic nature and thorough knowledge and my watercolour paintings which made it a sought-after book during the heyday of aromatherapy.

I had a great disappointment when my book-to-be on watercolour was shelved due to government restrictions,,,it was a year reserved for the printing of school textbooks only.

These were some tidbits...the wind blows and one's personal history becomes insignificant and forgotten!  Next time I will show what I did with poppies, and how that actually led me away from watercolours in the end.

An illustration featuring roses from "AROMATERAPIE" by Maxie Cloete (1990's)

Sunflower gift wrap and products for Clifton Cards (1990's)

Large protea painting for my late husband's 50th birthday (1993)

Painting  Flowers in Durbanville (1990's)

A Week of Roses

I love roses in winter, and they seem to like the season too, charming us with a long slow opening from bud to full bloom. I will allow the photos to tell the story of my rose painting adventures:

Some of these paintings are available! I invite you to visit my website  (link at the bottom of the page) and do remember that I take commissions if you need a special size painting or different colour roses. Shipping worldwide.

Five White Roses 9" x 12"

Website for the work of Marie Theron

Aloes in the Garden

This is the year that I will have to invest in a book on aloes, as I have just planted my 12th type. In a previous post I painted Aloe mitriformis, the wild West Coast aloes that cover the rocks near the ocean.

In the meantime my own garden grew well and the aloes grew large, and some of them became prolific. I called a large aloe with ferocious thorns "Old Buster". This year at last three fat orangey-red plumes appeared on old Buster! An occasion for a painting done in acrylics on canvas board, making use of paint brushes, toothpicks and cotton buds, all as tools for creating textures.

Aloes attract a lot of birds and you will see in my photos how birds eat down from the top, treating the aloes like corn-on-the-cob! I grabbed a few seeds to dry, and left the rest for these pretty Cape Canaries.