Carl Judson - Guerrilla Painter Notebook

Flowers

Flower painting has earned a bum rap for being trite. This is not the fault of the flowers.

I think of myself as anything but a flower painter. But as I look through my files I am surprised to see how frequently they “crop up.” I’m certainly not a skilled painter of flowers, depending rather on
their color or juxtaposition to contrasting subject matter to carry the painting.

Mostly it’s the color that gets me going. For instance (below), 2000 was a severe
drought year where I live. There were few wildflowers, but the prickly pear cactus bloomed in a profusion I had never seen. Their delicate pale yellow blossoms and
rosy pink buds rioted in the parched landscape.

Cactus Blossoms
Livermore, CO
Carl Judson © 2000
Oil on canvas, 7½" x 10".

When I came across this field of roses (above, right) in the San Joaquin Valley, I pulled over on the shoulder and set up my paint box on the tailgate of my pickup,
barely noticing the heat and glare of the midday sun (except in trying to capture the effect).

Field of Roses
San Joaquin Valley, CA
Carl Judson © 1992
Oil on canvas, 7½" x 10".

Thistles
Globe Canyon, AZ
Carl Judson © 1992
Oil on canvas, 10" x 3".

Early one evening I stopped to paint spectacular Globe Canyon in Arizona. As I was setting up my box on the camera tripod, I spied these thistles in bloom (above) and painted them instead. Other times it’s the subject contrast that catches my eye, like this wild rose
growing in bare ground by a rusty pipe (below)…

Water Pipe with Wild Rose
St. Vicents, Marin County, CA
Carl Judson © 1993
Oil on canvas, 7½" x 10".

...or a tractor with a Hollyhock (below).

1085 with Hollyhock
Livermore, CO
Carl Judson © 1992
Oil on canvas, 10" x 7½".

Sometimes flowers are a “painter’s
block” subject for me. I’ll get out to paint and find myself staring at my shoes, feeling uninspired and listless, and I’ll end up painting the ground along with any wildflowers
that may be caught in the frame
at my feet like Butterfly View (below) and California Poppies (above right).

To keep from getting completely lost in these complicated images, I start by carefully laying out the abstract pattern of the darkest shapes and then build the painting
up around them.

And then there was the rainy day at the ocean with the flowers on the table (below).

For my favorites - the most skilled and stunning examples of flower paintings I know - see those of Manet, painted from his sickbed during the last months before he died.