Inspiration Journal: Sunflowers

    

I just couldn’t resist visiting my local sunflower farm earlier this year. Summer is certainly the best time to view the sunflowers in all their majestic glory.

The sunflower is known for being a happy flower and it certainly makes me feel happy when I am strolling between them, as they make the most of the day’s sunshine as it travels across the summer sky. I wish I could spend long summer days chasing the sunshine, but capturing the beauty of the sunflower in watercolour is surely the next best thing!

I love the way their delicate but vibrant yellow colours give way to a bold centre, it helps create such a striking contrast. I recently found out that you can also get Sunflowers in orange and red, but I think the glorious yellow sunflower will always be my favourite, they really are a true sign of summer.

I always buy my Sunflowers at the farm shop when I have finished strolling through the beautiful fields and soaking up all that wonderful inspiration before taking them home.  Sunflowers tend not to last too long as cut flowers, so I also make sure I capture their beauty on my camera phone so that I have plenty of reference photos for my artwork.

I have really enjoyed bringing to life the texture of the thousands of seeds within the middle of the sunflower with my paintbrush, and working with vibrant yellow hues is always so delightful. Here is my finished painting.

Would you like to learn how to bring this giant beauty to life with your watercolours? You can see the steps I followed to paint my sunflowers in watercolour in this free step-by-step guide.

Do you love the bold sunflower too? Does it bring a touch of sunshine to your day?

Do let me know in the comments below…

Jennifer Rose x