Circular Flower Bed

Hello again and welcome to my watercolour blog. The painting I'm publishing in this post is a view of my parents garden in Topsham - a circular flower bed surrounded by mottled paving slabs.

I'm really pleased with the painting and enjoyed this particular style - I'm not sure what the technical term for this style is - dibs and dabs? I didn't do any background washes nor any real negative painting (creating light shapes by surrounding darker tones).

When I was choosing a reference photo to paint I really fancied doing this one as a pen and wash. I think I will continue and add ink pen to the painting and maybe a few more subtle shadows.

My intention was to photograph the painting in stages and this was successful up to stage 3 but then I became so engrossed in the painting I forgot to photograph any further stages until the finished painting! Oh well, maybe next time...

Here's the reference photo

Stage 1 - Sketch

Stage 2 - Reds

Stage 3 - Greens

Stage 4 - The finished painting

I hope you like the painting and I'll post again soon with pics of the pen and wash.

Thanks for reading.
Ian.