Just a few more details and the painting is finished!  I am surprised it went so fast, I expected to have to re-paint sections but it wasn’t necessary.  This original painting is titled “Blue Poppy” 18″x24″acrylic on canvas.  Next I send it to the photographer and finally select a frame. Gail Niebrugge, Alaska flower paintings

I’ve begun to intensify the blue color in the painting, and am refining the gradations.  As soon as I’m comfortable that the undulations in the petals and the leaves look soft, I’ll begin details.  Lots more to do first.  The dots are overlapping each other and building layers of beautiful color. More tomorrow, Gail Niebrugge, [...]

As the painting takes shape the dots become dense, I realize that I need to make the whole flower much more blue, an intense, beautiful blue.  It looks washed out at the moment.  Time to layer more dots over the existing dots with combinations of prussian, ultramarine, phthalo, cerulean and azure, some as tints and [...]

At this stage I am layering dots to create gradation of color from dark to light on the flower petals.  I am working to define the three dimensional forms of the corolla, rolling undulating, thin, soft hairy leaves.  My Himalayan Blue Poppies thrived during the cool, wet summer last year and easily multiplied.  They need [...]

The brown and sienna dots along the edges have been covered with various shades of green, I like the look, it feels more comfortable.  The poppy center is quickly roughed in, mainly to establish color and value to help me finish work on the flower petals.  That will be next.  The painting is about the [...]

The petals of the Himilayan Blue Poppy are taking shape with the addition of many blue, blue green and blue violet dots.  I think the background is too dark and I’m not satisfied with the brown tinge to the overall color, maybe I’ll cover the brown dots with green ones and see how they look.  [...]

This is a close-up of the lower right hand corner of the painting   At this stage I am filling in the white spaces around the original dots on the perimeter and adding some brownish orange, and rust colors along with the dark blues.  You can see how the dots begin to overlap each other, [...]

Now the painting is taking on an extremely pointillistic look, some artists will settle for the wide spacing of dots with white space showing around each one.  I, on the other hand, overlap my dots until they are difficult to see.  Don’t ask me why, it is intuitive.  I keep painting until the image satisfies [...]

At this stage I begin to add multi-colored blue dots to define the layers of petals.  These dots will change in color and value many, many times before the painting is complete.  I’m working to establish the color dominance of the painting, at this point I’m using analogous hues in the blue family.  I might [...]

At this phase I begin to add pointillism around the perimeter of the flower petals.  I chose dark values to begin but I’m not sure that I will stay with blues and browns, once the blossom is painted I will adjust the background colors. More tomorrow, Gail Niebrugge, flower artist