Honeysuckle

Oil on board
30 x 42 cms, 11.8 x 16.5 inches
Signed on reverse
Unframed, Ready to hang,
Original oil painting

Every year I photograph these beautiful honeysuckle flowers, I am fascinated by the shapes the petals create. I think the petals and stamens combined look like insects settling on the flowers. I particularly like the flowers when they are grouped together, partially over and some still in full bloom. My art studio is based at home near Horsham, Sussex, so when I look out the kitchen window in early summer and see them in flower, I dash out and photograph them. As an artist my process is to draw and paint from life and then develop these drawings in my sketchbook into ideas for paintings, and I have been studying these flowers for several years. It was only this year I developed a final composition, in this painting I wanted to illuminate the colours and the beautiful shapes these flowers create.

I create the vibrant colours by building up very thin layers of oil paint so that the flowers glow. I have used yellow ochres to capture the flowers that are slowly fading, and the newer flowers are the vibrant magentas and pinks.