The Story Behind the Art: Phipps Phlowers

Phipps Phlowers - oil painting

I’ve been really lucky and I’ve had a really good relationship with my Fine Arts teacher. Because of that I’ve liked to test the limits of what she said the rules are and one of the first rules she gave was to NEVER blend the paint on the canvas and to almost never use black. In Phipps Phlowers I broke both of those rules, haha. We took a trip to the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh so we could have real life inspiration for our nature painting project. We could either sketch the scene or flowers we wanted to paint or take pictures. I opted to take pictures. Once I was back in the studio I chose the picture I liked the best and figured out what it was I liked about it.

The photo I took on my phone

For this one it was the colors, so I layed down the base colors, red and green. Then I blended in some yellows and blues and anything else I thought I needed. I’ve always thought I was better at drawing so I outlined the small flowers and leaves in black and highlighted with white and yellow and made shadows with blue and a muted green. I’ve always liked a pun so when I was trying to name it I was thinking about what it was. They are flowers at the Phipps. Phipps Flowers. Phipps Phlowers, haha!

Do not repost or take my art without my express permission.