Bridges Florence July 24, 2008

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

This is the final stage of the under painting. Finishing the lower shops was a lot of work, but I enjoyed exploring all the details of the interior views of the windows with the shutters open. I found architectural details such as walls and stairways as well as drapes, lights and even a view all the way through to the store window in the front of the shop.

With this last section completed I went back over most of the piece with washes to adjust tones and color and refined several details. Many people have mentioned how much they like the sepia toned paintings, so I am going to do a print of this stage before I start adding color.

Hope you enjoy the process.

Bridges Florence July 22, 2008

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

I have now finished the under painting on the roof of the bridge and the upper shop windows and walls. Again, paying close attention to the individual shutters, tiles and porch details. The different colorations on the shutters are in anticipation of their final colors. Working on this picture has caused me to start seeing more details in the construction of the early turn of the century buildings in our area.

Well, one more row of windows to paint them I’m on to adding color.

“Garlic Scape, Allium Sativum”

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 5”x7” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

Even with all the different flowers blooming in the garden I am still fascinated by the garlic.

We grow several different types including this subspecies: Ophioscorodon, with its wonderful, characteristic 270 degree curl. It’s a very useful plant with its attractive blue green foliage, unusual flower spikes and edible bulbs and flower tops or scapes.

It is also an insect repellent so we grow it all over the gar5den. One of my favorites is a “top setting” variety that produces small cloves instead of flowers; these can be picked and broadcast over wide areas. Interestingly, the cloves are not true bulbs, but clusters of leaves. Another oddity is that they are planted in late fall for harvest the next summer.

We’re working on reaching garlic self sufficiency but we use so much it’s hard to do. We use the dried cloves in many dishes and put the scapes in the blender with olive oil for use in cooking or whatever. One of my favorites is a piece of toasted sour dough bread with a little olive oil and butter rubbed with a fresh clove of garlic; the bread acts like a grater and it produces the wonderful garlic bread.

“Orange Nasturtium, Tropaeolium”

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 6”x6” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

I’m happy to be back to painting after a very busy week. I worked on a 3 day show at a park about an hour south of here, completed 4 new pastels for a plein-air invitational show and packed and sent 50 pieces to a new gallery in Atlanta and also had a dear friend from Alaska come and spend a few days!

Everywhere you look in the garden now there is something blooming. This week there are lots of shades of purple, red and pink in the flowers of the Rose Campion, Lambs Ear, Astilbe and the elegant Clematis vines.

The nasturtiums are growing and blooming profusely in a variety of colors. A cheerful looking plant originally from South America, the make a good cut flower and young leaves, flowers and unripe seed pods add a peppery flavor and beautiful color to salads.

“Orange Asiatic Lily”

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 6”x6” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

It is a warm and misty day with a soft rain falling off and on since the big thunder storm last night. This will be good for the garden after our stretch of warm weather.

This lily is the same one that I painted last time but after doing a similar painting in white I added color washes heightened with translucent white. This layering of the colors produces some wonderfully rich color and depth. I use the same technique in a lot of my paintings usually starting with a sepia under painting to build the black and white layer on.

As I have mentioned before, the deer love to eat the lilies; but fortunately we have enough in the garden for both the deer and us to eat as well as some for cutting. The thick, succulent petals have a sweet, nutty flavor and are exceptional in salads. They are also interesting with pasta and mushrooms. Some folks use the 2-3 inch long flower buds of daylilies as a substitute for asparagus.

“Black and White Asiatic Lily”

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

A bright orange Asiatic lily, it is one of the easiest to grow and earliest to bloom. We grow three or four different types successfully. Unfortunately the deer love the blossoms so depending on their activity we sometimes miss many of the blossoms. One large pregnant doe has recently been regularly moseying through the garden just eating flowers and strawberries. Some years they never touch the lilies, some years they eat them all!

I used a couple of small brushes and a semi-transparent white paint, applying it thicker for the highlights and thinned down for the shadow areas leaving the black background for the darkest lines. The thick petals are sprinkled with an elegant pattern of small black spots.

“Big Leaf Maple Seeds”

Acrylic, Pen and Ink on Rag Paper 5”x8” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

These are the green seeds of our native Big Leaf Maple, a deciduous tree that grows all around the area. It has beautiful large leaves in summer some 15” wide or larger. It has spectacular fall color and in winter the bare silvery branches contrast with the evergreen firs and cedars. The tawny winged seeds hang in long chainlike clusters and fall spiraling to the ground in fall and early winter.

These were fun to draw and paint because of the unusual angular stems. I rarely get an opportunity to draw any straight lines or hard angles when working with plants. We are having warm and sunny days and the spring blooming plants are all setting seeds and the summer blooms are starting up in force.

Happy Summer

“Pastel Bearded Iris”

Acrylic on Rag Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

I found this iris growing under some raspberry bushes while doing cleanup recently. Because it had grown in shade it had these amazing subtle pastel tones and large delicate petals. The opalescent effect was stunning. Many of the iris we grow have been bred and developed by local growers who pass the plants down through generations of gardeners.

The iris laevigata are blooming like crazy now, but most of the bearded iris have been done for more than a week so this was an exciting find.

“Golden Sage”

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

This is a very hardy bush that has grown in the garden for many years. It seems never to be affected by the weather; neither hot dry spells nor cold heavy snow. The flower clusters look like several snap dragon blooms forming a ball. They are a bright yellow tinged with ocher, darkening to a rich golden tone as they age. Some have a thin light pink petal emerging from the “mouth” of the dragon. The thick sage green leaves have a distinctive fold near the end. It makes a great cut flower with the flowers lasting a week or more.

“Love In A Mist” - Nigella damascene

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

This is the blue version of this species which is a Mediterranean native with 1-1 ½” blooms in pink, white and blue. The fine threadlike leaves cover the foot tall plant and form a collar under the flowers, making the “mist”. It the fall it forms a large paper like, balloon shaped seed pod topped with five curling horns. It always gets lots of comments from visitors to the garden. This is an old fashioned favorite that grows in almost any climate and has seeded itself all over the yard.

This was a very complex flower so I did a study of the petals, about 24, the unusual center with the horns and the small pollen holders that are suspended from thin lines originating at the center of the flower. I then did a detailed drawing with a hard lead pencil before starting painting. The blue flowers range in shade from light to dark blue to a purple tone and I used ultramarine blue with a violet wash, lightly touched with white to capture the unique color of this bloom.

Happy Summer Solstice!

Bridges Florence - June 18th, 2008

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

At this point I have added another layer of paint to the stonework on the Ponte Vecchio. Although everything is in dark shade I have paid attention to the details in the stone and the support beams for authenticity.

These dark areas framed the scene below and gave me a nice tone to work from as I adjusted the light and dark areas on the rest of the picture. This has really given the bridges more structure and much more texture to the bank areas.

I’m excited about starting work on detailing the shops with their unique features and details.

Bridges Florence - Ponte Vecchio

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

This picture shows the laying in of the stones on the Ponte Vecchio, the first bridge in the picture. On closer examination of the reference photo I noticed more detail in the stones and several support beams for the overhanging shops. Although they will be in dark shadow I wanted to include them for authenticity and detail. As soon as I finished working on the stones I noticed changes that needed to be made to the lower bridges and water so I worked over them adding more tone and detail. At this stage I am mostly painting with 1/8-1/16” wide round brushes and using the tip of an exacto knife to pick out crisp edges and bright highlights. It’s a technique I borrowed from watercolor painting and is a good way to achieve these effects without the use of white paint. My friends sometimes tease me about having spent hours putting paint on the canvas and then scraping it all off but it is really only the small highlighted areas. The painting is coming along great but I can see that I will need to add more paint to the stones because I want the bridge to act as a frame for the river scene.

Bridges Florence - Bridges and River Underpainting

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

This shows the lower bridges and river under painting mostly finished. I used the same mix of blue and brown paints with three or four sizes of small brushes. Next, I’ll finish the under painting on the upper bridge and, then go back and touch up the lower section. I’m very pleased with how the reflections are turning out.

Purple Oriental Iris

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

All of the irises are now blooming madly but the rain is playing havoc with them. They become so heavy with the collected water that they fall over in the slightest breeze. The combination of symmetry and asymmetry in these flowers always intrigues me; the first repetition of three petals, three falls and three yellow central stripes. All of these have slightly different forms and details. This is a species of iris, Lavigatta, which is native to China, Korea and Japan. This plant loves moist acidic soil and so does quite well in our garden.

Pencil Drawing for Bridges Florence

Acrylic on Canvas 20” x 16”

This is the finished pencil drawing on canvas ready for painting. Since it is a medium size canvas I was able to draw in a lot of the details such as the window shutters and interior views. The bridges are: Ponte Vecchio, Ponte all Grazie, Ponte San Nicolo and Ponte Giovanni da Verazano.

Study for Bridges Florence

Color Pencil on Rag Paper 10” x 8” $195

This is the finished sketch. I used blunt tipped colored pencils to add color and shadows. With sharpened tips I was able to pick out the details. I enjoyed working on the subtle colors of the weathered shop walls and the individual windows with their green shutters. The perspective and atmosphere on the receding bridges was difficult to capture. I’m glad I worked things out with this drawing; it is going to be very helpful with the larger painting.

Study for Bridges Florence in progress

Color Pencil on Rag Paper 10” x 8”
Photo (June 02, 2008)

This in progress drawing is a study for an acrylic painting of the same subject. At this point I have the major shapes sketched in and have added color to the bridges and landscape. Next I will add more detail, shadows and more color. I started the piece with a graphite pencil sketch on buff rag paper and am using prismacolors to add the color. I like to do preliminary sketches for paintings; everything from thumb nails to pieces the same size as the painting. They really help me work out composition, color relationships and details for the final piece.

Florence, Italy and the Bridges

I am excited about working on this piece. It’s a fun composition with lots of depth; the elegant arches on the bridges and all the shop windows with their unique character are only a small part of this. I have drawn and painted “Ponte Vecchio” ( the oldest and most famous bridge in Florence, Italy spanning the Arno River) a few times before which is nice because I have some familiarity with its shapes and amazingly subtle colors. None of the other pieces were this large so it’s also nice to be exploring more details such as the window shutters and the soft blending of the wall colors.

You usually see views of this bridge from the side roads and the bridges on either side of it. I wanted a view from the river bank. Searching for a way down I saw that there was a very small bank and no access. Suddenly, I spotted a young couple having breakfast at a spot with enough room for just one table. I searched the storefronts but could not find any sign of a restaurant. About to give up, I spotted the same couple leaving through a small non-descript doorway. I peered in and found a beautiful old building with wonderful carpets and grand old woodwork. Walking in, I found that it was the Florence Rowing Club with meeting rooms, a hallway filled with trophies and a small coffee bar and restaurant. Some of the people stopped and looked but no one said anything so I walked through to the small lawn and was able to snap just a few pictures before a nice young Italian man, after confirming that I was not a member!, escorted me out. It was a little embarrassing but well worth it for the great pictures.

Oriental Poppy

Acrylic on Linen 6” x 6” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

This is an example of a bright red poppy that grows on the south side of the house. A native of the Caucasus, Northern Turkey and Iran, it likes a cold winter chill to enable it to grow and bloom well here. It is among the leafiest of poppies with bushy, coarsely cut, foot long leaves.

The flowers are huge, measuring 6 to 8 inches across on long strong stems with a black spot at the base of each petal. They add a pleasant Mediterranean touch to this sunny part of the garden.

Flag Iris

Acrylic on Gessoed Paper 7”x5” $95
http://www.bulmanfineart.com/
Rick@BulmanFineArt.com

This iris grows in the local marshes, we planted some in the garden several years ago but they grow so fast and strong that we have decided to move them “up the hill” and out of the main growing areas. They don’t seem to care about soil or water and grow to 4 or 5 feet tall wherever you plant them. The sword like leaves and bright yellow flowe4rs look elegant blowing in the breeze.