I started this piece in December 2000 and completed it in March 2002. There are very few days during that time period I didn't sit down to work on this. These Polaroids (of "Delphinium IV") exemplify how long it took me to create and complete these paintings.
Delphinium IV
pencil + watercolor on paper
30" x 42"
2000-2002
Delphinium IV, detail A
Delphinium IV, detail B
Delphinium IV, detail C
Delphinium IV, detail D
Delphinium IV, detail E
Delphinium II
pencil + watercolor on paper
22" x 30" +/-
2000
Delphinium III
pencil + watercolor on paper
18" x 22" +/-
2000
Delphinium III, detail A
pencil + watercolor on paper
18" x 22" +/-
2000
pencil + watercolor on paper
12" x 36"
2000
These are the remainder of my delphinium paintings. During the years I worked on these, I became so consumed by delphiniums that I bought every book and magazine I could find about them. One time, I found a vintage blue delphinium brooch in a thrift shop in Vermont, and it blew my mind and made me cry, as I was so close to them (same place I found these killer boots). Who makes a delphinium brooch? I knew that the little thingies in the middle of each flower were referred to as "bees". I knew that the flower was named for the Latin word for dolphin. I was at the flower market with a friend of a friend getting new delphiniums to draw at 4:00 a.m. every other week. I was ob-sessed!
"Delphinium IV", the painting at the top of this post, was the last delphinium piece I worked on, a commission for a woman in Pennsylvania who had seen my work at an open studio event and had asked me to do one for her. This is the painting which I worked on from 1:30 a.m. until 7:00 a.m. every day, then off to work, then home and in bed by 6:30 p.m., and repeat. Weekends were even crazier. What an amazing time in my life to be able to be completely absorbed by something like this, no matter how miserable I may have felt most of the time. As I mentioned here, this piece took me over 1,500 hours and over 13,000 applications of paint (I kept track with a tic-mark after each little piece was painted).
Two months after I finished, I met my husband at an art opening. Ten months after that, we married. What a journey! I count myself very fortunate to have had the kind of space to do intense work, and when I came up for air on the other side, a new life was waiting for me.
Wow! I did'nt know that you were painting! This is awesome! I think this flower is a real milestone in your life...
ReplyDeleteHi Gulcin!
DeleteThank you! Yes, they were, and it was just so strange to get so attached to them like that. Thanks for stopping by, glad to hear from you!
Those are really fantastic! I think your love of them shows in your art.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Kristin. I do wish the colors were nicer in these slide scans, I had to edit the heck out of them just to make them look like this! Thank you for commenting!
DeleteI love Delph's and you've captured each lovely detail, painstakingly. Breathtaking work.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It was quite a study. I appreciate your kind words.
DeleteThe effect comes out almost 3D doesn't it, makes the flowers pop off the page. Can see it even via photo. I get obsessed about certain things too, much easier now with the internet...quicker to satisfy that I must know everything about ____ urge.
ReplyDeleteHi Tania, back from the dead? ;)
DeleteI think the 3D effect might come from the white background, and also the whole processing of the slides and editing added some of that effect. But yeah, they do pop a bit!
Oh, the internet. Sometimes I wish it was never invented for that very reason. My husband and I are guilty of running to look something up when we should be finishing the conversation to the point that now I just say "forget about it" instead of losing one of us to the interwebs!
Beautiful images and so inspiring to know that a project can stretch over time and still come to completion. You are so talented! Am wanting to pick the brush back up this year myself so finding your blog through NaBloPoMo came at the perfect time. Your posts are a wealth of inspiration.
ReplyDeleteThanks, FG. You really have to be ready or be hurled back into it somehow. This was quite a while ago that I was producing like this (a decade ago, more or less!). What has filled the void for me in the last year is studying burlesque and the costuming. What a great creative outlet I have found in that. I still think EVERY DAY about painting again.
DeleteI don't know if you ever saw this, but I wrote about my journey doing "The Artist's Way" in this post. It outlines the process, and what it did for me, and how inspiration comes when you least expect it (sort of like love, I guess!):
http://bloggingcornerblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/doing-artists-way.html
That is awesome - I cant get enough of these images! I hope you have them hanging! & such a quick engagement - I love it - so romantic!!! My husband and I ...9 1/2... 9 and 1/2 YEARS ughhh!
ReplyDeleteYou are a doll, Ann! That was quite an engagement, I hope you had an awesome wedding! :)
DeleteThe big one was a commission, one was a wedding gift, another one was sold....actually, also a commission for a friend by his wife. The only one I still have is "Dead Delphinium". I love it so much I couldn't part with it.