Mountain Cornflower Centaurea Montana – painting a flowers structure
Today’s watercolour sketch is Mountain Cornflower. Mountain Cornflower is a beautiful blue/purple flower that has grown in the borders, since I pruned some of the larger shrubs. I’ve only discovered what it is, since I’ve painted it, for this watercolour. I think I’ve painted it just before the petals have fully opened. I haven’t painted it’s green leaves, I just wanted to capture the structure of the petals of this beautiful blue flower.
The Mountain Cornflower is a perennial cornflower, compared to the more well known annual Cornflower. Also this Cornflower has distinctive wispy petals in comparison, to the more well known Cornflower (Bachelors Buttons).
Mountain Cornflower painting in the rain
I knew it would rain for todays plein air watercolour, so I kept the big umbrella handy. So with the sketch book open on my lap, I focussed on painting the Mountain Cornflower. This blue flower looks really vibrant against the wet, green foliage surrounding it. The flower had a strong vibrant colour, I’ve tried to capture.
I decided not to paint the leaves of the Cornflower, because they might detract from the shape of the petal structure. I’ve really tried to capture the blue/purple tone of the petals. First I applied a pale blue wash to the petals. Then I used a pale pink mix for the inner workings of the flower. Then I applied deeper blue and purple tones to the petals and overall Cornflower.
Again I’ve had to balance how much detail I paint, but I hope I’ve managed to capture the tones of colour and structure of the Mountain Cornflower. The other thing I had to balance was the umbrella over the flower and myself. It wasn’t easy trying to paint when the breeze picked up. I must look a sight, huddled over my sketchbook in the rain, with my umbrella, but the painting was worth it.