Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Denver Botanic Gardens

Denver Botanic Gardens by James Gurney, casein, 5 x 8 inches
We visit the Denver Botanic Gardens, a world class destination for outdoor painting. 

It's hard to choose between the bonsai garden, the lily pads, the orchids and bromeliads, and the native prairie grass environment. Jeanette and I decide on a view from the Romantic Garden toward the Herb Garden.   


It's a study in greens, so I emphasize a variety of different shades of green, and set up spot-contrasts with adjacent red-violets and red-browns. I'm using casein paint in a watercolor sketchbook with my homemade easel with a nylon diffuser all of which fits easily into a small backpack.
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Previously: Homemade diffuser panel
Botanical illustrators meet at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and I did a program there back in 2009.
Video tutorial: "Gouache in the Wild"
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7 comments:

  1. MarthaOctober 21, 2015 at 9:31 AM

    Delightful--very European-looking scene.

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  2. James GurneyOctober 21, 2015 at 9:37 AM

    Thanks, Martha! I was thinking of George Elgood, a Victorian garden painter.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HeislerOctober 21, 2015 at 10:26 AM

    You painted one of my favorite spots there! Its interesting to see areas I am familiar becoming scenes in a painting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KrystalOctober 21, 2015 at 1:49 PM

    So beautilfuly done...

    ReplyDelete
  5. RichOctober 21, 2015 at 1:51 PM

    Beautiful, yes!
    How would it have looked without the nylon diffuser at hand?
    Perhaps this subtle diffuse air / haze / aura would be missing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Tom HartOctober 21, 2015 at 2:24 PM

    Not only a great depiction of greens, but a wonderful sense of atmosphere is really coming across.

    I swear you're getting even better!

    ReplyDelete
  7. runningheadOctober 22, 2015 at 4:27 AM

    Incredible work James. I love the way the photograph shows an interesting house on a sunny day, whereas the painting creates a light suffused idyll of singing colours and glittering highlights. It's like the difference between my subjective experience of my holidays and looking at my holiday snaps months later at home :) Just shows, in a simple unassuming plein air study, how painting and photography are vastly different creatures. Simply lovely.

    ReplyDelete

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