Easy Wildflower Meadow Watercolour

There’s something magical about painting wildflower meadows!

This month we’re heading into the heart of summer with one of the most joyful watercolour subjects: the wildflower meadow. Full of colour, movement and natural charm. It’s a perfect project for painting loose and free.

Whether you’re a beginner or looking to loosen up your technique, I’ve a created a simple step-by-step guide to help you paint your own expressive meadow.

You can also take this as a full length real time video class available for subscribers who are already taking my other full length loose watercolour classes.

What you’ll need:

Always remember, If you don’t have the equipment and paints I have, you can be really creative and use what you do have.

• I worked from a photo/s – if you’d like to use the same reference photo you can download the PDF photo/s to refer to within the class video area.
• Paper: 300gsm Arches (140lb) cold pressed watercolour paper or a sketchbook.
• My sheet size is: 27x38cm (11×15 inch)
• Brushes: Jennifer Rose size 10/0 and 0 mop brush. Link here: https://www.rosemaryandco.com/jennifer-rose-mop.
• Kitchen towel (to dab off any excess water) and to create shapes
• Masking Fluid
• Water in a pot
• A scrap of paper to practice and mix your colours with by your side.

• Windsor & Newton and Daniel Smith Paints:

  • Lemon Yellow – W&N
  • Opera Rose – W&N
  • Permanent Rose – W&N
  • Rose Of Ultramarine – Daniel Smith (A touch of)
  • Cobalt Blue- W&N – The sky area)
  • Quinacridone Gold – Daniel Smith
  • French Of Ultramarine – W&N (Makes a vibrant green colour mixed with Quinacridone Gold .)
  • Sap Green- W&N
  • Olive Green- W&N
  • Chinese White- W&N
• 1. Plan your painting: – From my reference photo, I created a light sketch of where my flower heads and larger grass areas in the foreground would be on my paper. I then masked out these areas so that I can freely apply my background washes without covering them. This keeps them nice and white to work on later when the masking fluid is removed. With an HB pencil I faintly marked where some of the stems would be.

2. Start with a soft background: – Begin with a wet-on-wet wash of yellow and green shades for the background and tree line indication. I used a quinacridone gold and french ultramarine combination to create an additional vibrant green shade. See below the mixed result. I also included some pure colour of the quinacridone gold using a dab effect around some of the masked out flower heads and let this settle. Lastly I create a soft blue sky that blended into the light green and yellow field. Let the colours mingle and dry completely.

2. Sprinkle some salt!

As your background wash gently begins to dry, sprinkle some salt to achieve a summery feel of pollen floating in the air. The effect is gorgeous! Allow to fully dry once sprinkled.

3. Add wildflowers freely

With the painting now fully dry, remove the masking fluid to the flower heads. With vibrant pinks and yellows dot in the flowers using the tip and side of your brush. Let colours overlap and run slightly for a dreamy, organic look. Leave some white spaces for highlights.

5. Suggest stems and grasses

Continue to build up the composition using a smaller brush, to add a few flowing stems and grasses. Let your hand be loose – nature isn’t perfect!

4. Add some trees

Create some depth to your painting by adding a line of trees to the background. I used a sponge effect to add texture and a little more realism to my trees by dabbing my green paint on this way. Resist the urge to overwork and let the looseness and simplicity shine! Using a combination of green shades, build depth and contour to your background foliage. Drop in some yellow for added vibrancy and increase the sky suggestion.

6. Final Touches

Let your painting dry and then step back to see if any areas need a little more color or contrast. Flick and spatter some extra paint for additional texture, and add a few highlights with yellow and white paint. Resist the urge to overwork.

Want to follow this painting process in real time?

This full Loose Wildflower meadow class is available in my watercolour library — perfect for beginners and anyone wanting to paint with more freedom and flow.

You can find this class and others here: https://jenniferrose.art/paint-watercolours-with-me/

Loose painting tip of the month: Imply more than you describe. Let the viewers imagination do the work.

Stay creative, stay loose,

Love Jennifer Rose xx