Georgia O’Keeffe is particularly famous for her large-scale depictions of flowers, New Mexico landscapes and images of New York skyscrapers. Her close-up, large-scale flower paintings feature a single blossom magnified to the point where it nearly fills the canvas. The use of vibrant, bold colours to express the emotional intensity of her subjects is yet another hallmark of her style. Some of her most famous paintings include ‘Red Canna’ and ‘Oriental Poppies’.
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Here’s how you can make your own Georgia O’Keeffe-style painting on paper. Choose an image of a flower online. Pick a flower that has an interesting centre or bud. Zoom into the image and begin your painting.
MATERIALS
- Soft pastel colours
- Pencil
- A4 paper
METHOD
- Once you get the magnified image of the flower, draw it with a pencil on an A4 sheet of paper. Your drawing doesn’t have to look exactly like the image you have chosen. Use a light pencil stroke and if possible, don’t use an eraser.
- Start colouring the bud first as the soft pastel colours stick to your skin and will spread on the paper.
- For the shading effect, first colour the portion required and then use your fingers to smudge it. Follow the direction of the colour on the petal and smudge it in the same direction.
- For the petals, first make a white base and continue with pink. Follow the curvy lines of the petals while colouring them. Use purple for darker tones and brown for shadows.
- Colour first and then smudge the colour for better shading.
- Colour the other petals too. Make light pink lines on the petals and overwrite them with purple. Make sure you use white colour as the base for every petal.
- For the background, use shades of green and blue. First colour and then smudge the colour for an even texture.
- Colour all the petals. Your painting is ready!
Dipika Gurnaney studied at the Sir JJ School of Fine Arts and is a recipient of a scholarship from the Pont Aven
School of Contemporary Art in France. Dipika has been teaching children art since 2002.
