Michael Pearce

A new year brings new life to this painting, with more morning glory blossoms blooming in grey around the five blue flowers that are already half finished. I realized that all five were pointing the same way, which doesn’t happen in nature, so rather than delete them I thought I’d take advantage of the problem by adding a few more of the flowers facing inward toward the Empress. After all, more flowers can’t be a bad thing. When they’re painted blue we’ll have a fine display of flowers.

I particularly like the droopy quality of the flowers in the second photo, which is the bottom left corner of the painting, where I added some un-opened buds for a bit more detail. I may well paint these pink instead of blue, finding a little balance here for the pinks of the cherry tree. Above the wormwood (the blue-green plant in the second picture) I painted an additional grey vine because I wanted to give this plant more substance – wrapping the morning glory around the wormwood it implies that there’s more growth taking place out of the picture frame.

Over on the right hand side some ivy has taken root and invaded the seat and tangled itself into the shrubs behind the wall. As more detail gets into those leaves this area’s going to start working very well. It’s a bit vague for my liking at the moment. I’ve been wanting to paint detail into the pink blossom all day, but can’t because the green of the bushes was a little soft, so I would have been constantly busy avoiding it.

Three greens loosely brushed over the patchy en grisaille work behind the wall makes a good first layer for the bushes below the pink blossoms of the cherry tree. I’ve used Rose Madder for the pinks (a Pre-Raphaelite favorite), mixed with a little Foundation White and pounced onto the canvas with a beaten up old sable brush, then gently dabbed with a soft rag (old fine woven t-shirts that have been washed make the best rags). After the pinks and whites were down I experimented with adding detail to some of the blossoms in the bottom of the tree, but I think this is best left to another day, when this layer has dried.

On the other side of the canvas the morning glory has become more substantial with the addition of a layer of Sap Green over the en grisaille. I find it vaguely amusing that I’m using what’s essentially an alla prima technique for the blossoms and bushes in the background, while the more detailed work in the foreground gets en grisaille, because these were techniques that were almost physically fought over in the nineteenth century by painters like the fabulous Bouguereau in the corner of the academic salon, while equally the delicious Renoir and Monet et alia held up the corner of the new-fangled Impressionists.

The photos seem to be much darker than usual. I’ll have to get better lighting in here. That warm glow on the second shot is particularly misleading, it’s just the pool of light cast by my studio light.

At last the cherry trees I promised long ago have made their first appearance, albeit in a very slender and rather deserted showing, without any of the leaves and blossoms that will make them so pinkly pretty. I’ve contrived to make the branches point to the Empress’ belly again, like the lines of the architecture – I want to make the painting feel as if every living thing is focused upon her, so all the plants are reaching toward her; the morning glory that almost touches her hand, and the ivy on the pillars that grows at the same angle as her body are already in place – watch for more as the work continues. I’m looking forward to developing the environment around the girls to become an increasingly rich and detailed world, like the work of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Stanhope I mentioned yesterday.

I spent a little while reworking the morning glory flowers with some Cadmium Blue. I’ll add a little Rose Madder around the centre and into the pentagrams before I glaze these blossoms with a French Ultramarine. I wasn’t happy with the early rendering, but they’ll do for the base for new work. I’ve also added Naples Yellow veining to the leaves.

The wormwood has been lightened by an overpainting of a pale blue / green that brings the value to where it should be and allowed me to put back some of the detail that was lacking. I really want to add more plants around the bottom side of the wormwood, coming over the wall and curling up towards the Empress.

I still dislike the design of that yellow dress on the left. I’m going to have to revisit it pretty soon (again).

I found an excellent Art History blog that’s very well written and extremely knowledgeable. I recommend it: Three Pipe Problem. My students, go see this excellent resource.