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17th Century Style Flower Piece
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Message
Posted
Hello all. I'm an amateur artist in Macclesfield, Cheshire. After a long break from art I decided to set to on a preliminary drawing for a small panel painting. I've long been an admirer of the work of the Dutch and Flemish masters of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries---especially the pioneers of the flower piece as an independent genre of still life in the early 17th century. To this end I've completed a drawing, a flower piece, composed after the manner of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573-1621). Bosschaert would compose directly on panel. Drawing a vertical line in the centre of the picture plane, he would then add selected blooms from his stack of patterns---individual flower portraits that he'd drawn in the gardens of Middelburg where he lived and worked---it's what is known as an axial composition. My drawing is on cartridge paper, drawn to panel size---6x8 inches---using photos of individual blooms I've downloaded online. This drawing will be transferred, by tracing, to a primed anodised alumium panel. The painting can then be executed in oils. The attached drawing---made a short while ago(!)---gives an idea of the style. The second attachment shows the preliminary drawing for the panel. To do the tracing I had photocopies made of the drawing at a local photo shop. The nice young Polish lady who made the copies for me thought my plan was a bit ambitious---we'll see. 
Posted
Your work is very clean and neat. It was interesting to read your work method to produce you arrangement of flowers I too, look forward to seeing how your painting develops. I had to look up your alumium panel, and how its primed. They are quite expensive.
May I ask, why this particular type of panel, does it have any benefit when painting, that a primed cotton panel doesn't have?
Edited
by Carol Jones
Posted
Thanks Sandra, Carol. I've only just noticed I misspelt aluminium. Bosschaert worked on wood panel, but mostly on small copper panels. Other Dutch and Flemish flower painters of the early 17th century, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, used copper panels too. They'd prime them with a layer of lead white with a touch of black to make a light mid toned imprimatura or toned ground. This would give them the smooth surface necessary for such finely detailed work. The anodised aluminium panel I've chosen is better than copper in that it's more rigid, and the process of anodising alters the structure of the aluminium at, and just below, the surface to give a support that takes paint well without the need to scuff the surface of the panel.
Posted
Here's what I've got so far---not in oil paint, but in Royal Talens Van Gogh Coloured Pencil!
I tried oil paints---and even though I have painted in the past, in watercolour---I couldn't get on with 'em.
This is done on Bockingford 140lb hot-pressed watercolour paper, which I think is a superb paper. I reckon I'm a better draftsman than a painter anyhow. It's a painstaking job for me. I do this work at night after I've finished my round and had my supper---I work as a home-carer. Considering it's my first drawing in earnest for twenty years, my first flower piece, and first in coloured pencil, I don't think it's half bad. What you see so far has used twelve colours; I set m'self a little challenge with this---to use only colours to be found in the basic set of 24. It forces one to be a little resourceful.
When finished will post result. Should this now be posted elsewhere?
Posted
Well done Tom. I imagine art is a good way of winding down after a days work as a carer?
I think it’s quite a sensible idea to stick to your set of pencils and work with what you have. It’s very easy to go spend endlessly on art stuff and not use half of it!
When you feel it’s finished put it on the Gallery. I look forward to seeing more.
Posted
Tom - yes, please put in on the Gallery: not because this is the wrong place, it isn't, but if it's on the Gallery more people are likely to see it.
Aluminium panels are indeed expensive, but if they give the results you want - though I see you're having second thoughts about oils? - they're worth the cost.
Oil paint need not be incompatible with a draughtsman's approach - that depends very much on process; working in layers, as Bosschaert probably did, unusual though his approach was in other respects, might suit you better; flower painting these days tends to have us working in pure colour on, often, a pure white surface - I could be wrong about that, but it's the way it seems to me that most modern painters tackle them (those that paint flowers at all): then there's the botanical study, most often accomplished in watercolour or, indeed, high-grade coloured pencils. It all depends on what you're after - with oil, you can get thick, luscious paint of great depth chromatically: a portrait of a lily sprung to mind when typing that - they beg for rich oil paint! So I hope you haven't given up on oils - persistence is the word we want here!
Your work is indeed not half bad, and I agree with you about Bockingford paper - I abandoned it some while ago in favour of Arches, and now think I made a mistake. Also try Hahnemühle and Schoellershammer papers, perhaps? Several of their papers are ideal for your sort of work - the white of the paper reflecting through the paint (probably not a scientically valid way to put it) gives a life to flower paintings which can otherwise be absent - but again, to achieve that takes practice: I'm not very good at it, but admire the work of those who are.
Posted
Thank you, Tessa. Thank you, Robert,
The richness of oils is exactly what I had in mind when starting out on this project. I do have some and may try them again, although I'm enjoying the neatness, cleanness, and convenience of the coloured pencils. The finish with the Van Gogh pencils is nice, too. None of that wax crayon look about it that you can get with other makes. Doing it this way gives a result in appearance not unlike the use of watercolour and bodycolour that artists like, Jacques de Gheyn, Nicolas Robert, Maria Sibylla Merian, and her daughter, Johanna Helena Herolt used to use. I'm also a great admirer of the work of the late 17th/early 18th century century Dutch painter, Herman Henstenburgh (1667-1726). Working on vellum, in watercolour and bodycolour, he produced results that are sensational. He couldn't make a living from his art. He was a pastry cook by trade!
Bob (if I may), what is the stuff on the plate you're about to tuck into in the thumbnail?
Posted
Just a flying visit to say, I'm looking forward to seeing your work. After years of ignoring Dutch flower paintings before I had ever picked up a paintbrush, I'm now fascinated, I would love to have a go myself.
I'm still not a fan of still life (why would anyone want to put a picture of two salmon steaks* up on the wall) but I can imagine a great flower painting livening up the winter months.
*(the only Goya in the latest Courtaulds exhibition was his salmon steaks! I'll say no more) "Goya to Impressionists"
Edited
by Norrette Moore
Posted
Tom: A) I hate 'Bob' - when your name is Jones, you want a bit of distinction in at least your first name; 'Bob' always sounds to me like someone's Jack Russell: 'here, Bob! Fetch!'. But I'll let you off, just this once. B) It was a lemon cheesecake, on which I poured double-cream: I didn't get to be 14 stone and wobbly around the midriff by accident, but am currently trying to lose weight. Unfortunately, 'currently' puts me in mind of currant buns, with lots of butter... Oh dear......
Posted
Thank you, Robert. Lemon cheesecake with double cream. In estate agent spiel, that sounds very salubrious and highly adjacent.
Norrette, About twenty years ago I showed two or three of my townscape drawings and watercolours to some members of an amateur artists' society in North Staffordshire. One bloke---who didn't particularly care for townscapes---opined that I ought to try my hand at painting and drawing fish(!) Now, that's summat I've absolutely no interest in whatever! Don't care for the impressionists either. What my man, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and several other early to mid 17th century painters---including two or three ladies---did was to create a still, beautiful little world, in and of itself. I can't put it any better than author, Peter Mitchell, who, in his excellent book, European Flower Painters (1973), writes of a couple of flower pieces by Bosschaert: "Both bouquets seem to loom out of a smoky dark background in mysterious fashion, with a radiancy of colour which, in the writer's opinion, was never to be surpassed by any of the hundreds of flower painters which the seventeenth and later centuries produced."