I have painted Irises after a gap of few years. All my previous iris paintings have flowers of single colour. The ones now are bouquet of Irises of different colours. One bouquet has been painted with a flower pot and another without one. One has a dark background while the other has a light one. Which one do you think looks better?
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Ever since I saw this painting in the National Gallery, London, I have been wanting to paint it. It is my tribute to the great artist Henri Fantin-Latour whose flower paintings are a treat to watch.
There have been Dutch and Flemish old masters whose floral paintings too, adorn museums around the world. Van Huysum, Heade and Jan Bruguel are some of the famous old masters who created realistic paintings of flowers and were patronised by the high and mighty of their times. The vases with flowers of various seasons combined together on mostly marble table tops are the highlight of their paintings.
My personal liking is for Fantin’s paintings. The compositions, lighting and realism are all eye catching.
A Basket of Roses has pink, red, yellow, white and peach roses, all put together in a basket in an attractive manner. The roses toppled over on the table create a flow in the painting. While painting, I realised how many leaves were there along with the roses.
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After painting roses for days together, I was looking for a different flower to paint. I came across a painting by Henri Fantin-Latour of chrysanthemums in yellow colour. I instantly liked the bright yellow flowers and the composition of the painting. I felt like painting bright yellow chrysanthemums after pale roses for weeks. That is how the decision to paint chrysanthemums was made.
Chrysanthemums in a Ceramic Vase
This is how the painting has turned out. The layers of petals of the flowers took time to paint. Various mixes of cadmium, lemon and ochre yellow with tinges of reds, blues and whites were used to get the various values, hues, tints, tones and shades of flowers. The more I painted, the more I appreciated the great artist’s brushstrokes and nuances in the rendition. I changed the background from the original and added more texture to it. Also the blue painting on the ceramic vase is different.
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Oil Paintings by Navdeep Kular 