Schmitt - Painted Blossoms: Creating Expressive Flower Art with Mixed Media

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Its your time to bloom. To pick up that paintbrush and unleash your creativity. The good news is that anyone can paint expressive flowers. They are organic, forgiving subjects. Each flower is unique; no one can say you painted it wrong.

We are going to approach painting as though we are designing a garden. We will learn the basics, observe what we like from other masters and experiment to create our own unique floral masterpieces. Be open to surprises and embrace imperfections with gratitude for their flawed beauty and carefree charm. Like gardening, creating art takes time, patience, faith, a solid work ethic and relentless perseverance. But most of all, it takes you to a place of deep joy and centeredness that washes away the stress of life.

By creating your own expressive floral designs, you are joining a universal love affair with flowers that transcends time, gender, age, language and cultures. Flowers have inspired creative expression for ages. Claude Monet said, I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. Perhaps the same will be true for you!

Together, well explore how to create art that transports viewers to a realm where nature, imagination and the serendipitous collide. To do this, we will absorb inspiration from our surroundings, follow our intuitive spirit and honor our unique stories as we put paint to canvas.

We will also incorporate key design elements found in fresh bouquets and living gardens all over the world: line, texture, form, scale, pattern, balance, unity, contrast, color, rhythm and variety. With the insight of several talented artists, we will use these concepts to create drama, cultivate design, explore possibility and nurture your style because you are the secret ingredient to each of your paintings.

People often ask me how I create paintings that express such intense joy. The soulful practices in this book are the roots that nourish that joy in my work. In his book Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon says, Write the book you want to read. This book is what I want to knowother artists techniques and truths, as well as subtle practices that cause internal shifts and find expression in art.

In Plant the Seeds, we will go over art basics, design principles and how to prepare the mind, body and soul for the joy-full art projects throughout the rest of the book. Scattered along the way are pages of inspiration and invitations to participate in soul work from our contributing artists, aka the Flower Tribe. Consider these women your guides cheering you on in your journey. Invite their words, wisdom, art and stories into your life.

We will embrace the wild, the natural, the free. Let go. Mimic the rose with its many layers. Imitate the wild wisteria vine with its playful unpredictability. And admire the determined ivy for its tenacity and ability to make breakthroughs despite obstacles.

Anas Nin said, And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Today is that day. Let us begin together.

plant | plant

: to put or set into the ground

seeds | sdz

: beginnings which develop and grow

: that which provides inspiration for future endeavors

Just as a gardener prepares the soil so that flowers can blossom, as artists we need to prepare for the creative process by honoring our own personal landscapeour mind, body and soul. When I began living an artistic life, I was surprised to learn that most of the work that goes into a painting happens before your paintbrush touches the canvas. This is why creating has been a transformative experience for meit has required a healthy lifestyle that includes self-care on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. I have included these practices in my painting technique book because they are an intrinsic part of my creative process. These are the roots and all the invisible underground nutrients that allow colorful flowers to bloom on my canvas.

While planting seeds is one analogy, another is to view this practice as a way to create offerings that attract creativity. I was marveling at the presence of a blue heron in our pond one day and felt so lucky to witness its graceful beauty. I love the idea of animal messengers and imagined what gift it was bringing me at that moment. I realized its presence was not luck but rather evidence that there was an abundance of fish in our pondthe conditions were ideal to attract the heron. Of course it appeared. That might seem obvious, but I also found it profound when applying it to my artistic life. Give yourself an abundance of opportunities and offerings that welcome and attract creativity into your life.

Whether you plant seeds, fill the well or stock your pond, the idea is the samecreate an environment for your mind, body and spirit to flourish and beautiful things will come your way.

Like a flower we blossom when the conditions are right.

Rita Said

Find art supplies that fit your unique style by experimenting with different sizes, shapes, brands and products. Each time I go to the art store, I pick one new item to play with while creating.

Below is a list of general art supplies used in this book. Before each exercise is a list of what you will need for that specific project.

Try a variety of shapes and sizes to discover what you like best. I always have several canvases in my studio so I can continue to paint while one is drying or just to move on if I need a break from a painting in progress. You might discover that you paint differently on a large canvas versus a small one. Usually, painting large feels the most natural and easiest for me.

The different sizes I use in this book are listed before each project.

I like to have a variety of colors that represent the color wheelversions of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black. Heavy body acrylics are thicker in texture, while fluid acrylics are thinner. I often use the heavy body acrylics for flowers and fluid acrylics for stems and when I use a spray bottle to make the paint run.