Flower Painting, My Morning Ritual

THIS MORNING , before the sun came up, I was out the door with a cup of coffee in my hand and a backpack full of watercolors on my back. The sun rises here on Lake Merritt about 7:15 these days, and it's still pretty cold at that time.  Morning joggers running around the lake had flushed cheeks and the breath they exhaled was a heavy mist.  The ducks, geese, egrets, herons and all the migratory birds on the lake were starting to wake up and think about who is going to bring them bread, or other noble bird thoughts.

Most of the trees have lost their leaves, the roses are bulbous hips, and the tulips and daffodils are still under ground.  However, there is one park, a park within a park called the arboretum, where naturalists and gardeners manage to keep everything from hydrangeas to birds-of-paradise blooming all year round.

How to Paint a Flower:

For the past year, I've been trying to paint at least one flower every day.  Some of those are posted in the gallery section of The King of Kook under Flower Boy's Paintings.  I look forward to painting even more flowers and eventually filling that gallery with hundreds of paintings.  For the most part, the flowers I paint are small (on special postcard-size watercolor paper), quick, and when I'm done, I stick a stamp on the back and send it to one of my friends!

When setting out to paint a flower, here's what I like to do:

1. Pick the right flower to paint.  The right flower talks to you about your mood, what you want to convey and how you'll paint it.  You're going to be looking at this plant for at least a half hour of intense meditation, so find one that is interesting.

2. Really take time to ponder what the flower wants, how it wants to be painted.  Matthew says that when he is making an arrangement, he actually talks to the flowers.  I find that if you listen to a flower, it will talk to you about everything from the composition, color choice, and any subtle messages that can work their way into your painting.

3. Painting is a meditation.  The time you spend with the flower is so healthy and good for the rest of your day.  When I haven't been able to paint for a few days, I become short tempered and moody.

4. Share your painting.  Putting a painting away in a notebook is sad.  Someone will love to see your painting -- or even to have it.  No matter what you think, send it to someone you love.  They will really appreciate it.

This morning I painted a magnolia.  There was a whole tree coming into bloom in the garden, with blossoms that were externally a deep dark pink, but internally a creamy white.  I particularly liked this flower in the rising sun, because the sun rays turned the parts of the flower they hit into a golden glow.  The pedals that were still in the shadows were by contrast a deep, icy blue.

On The King of Kook, I'll post a picture of today's magnolia, but that painting is currently in the mail to a lucky friend.

My Morning Ritual, reprinted from The King of Kook, January 24, 2006