The Back Terrace

The Back Terrace. Oil on Board, 25cm x 35cm.
The Back Terrace. Oil on Board, 25cm x 35cm.

Zinnia flowers are the lazy gardeners best friend. Last year I started off with just a few and this summer they had grown everywhere, a forest of colours attracting so many butterflies and hummingbird hawk-moths. They are late summers last burst of sunshine and even though autumn is here the sun is still shining on this terrace!

What struck me to paint this scene was the way that the brightly coloured flowers light up against the dark background which I think helps to break up some of the bushy leafy greens.  After a bit of experimenting to get the flowers to jump out I decided to dull down and darken the green leaves while using different variations of colour, value and chroma to keep the green interesting. To express the brightness of the flowers which bring a bit of excitement into an otherwise big area of green I tried to keep the reds as saturated as possible, paint does not come close to real life’s value range and it is suprising how colours in nature are brighter than the colours you can make on the palette!

Ciao!

17 thoughts on “The Back Terrace”

  6. Oh, this is such an inviting scene! What a wonderful place you have. You did great on the garden, but I can’t keep my eyes off the tiled roof. So, so beautifully made. I’ll have to blame my profession for that.

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    1. Thankyou Heidi! The roof looks nice but it sure has holes in it! 50 yrs ago the roof would have been made with a type of slate tile found around the land and now it has been replaced by terracotta 🙂

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