Heralds of spring

There is something celebratory about painting spring flowers. The new growth, life and vibrant colour brings so much hope! When I paint them, I always want to convey that exciting spark of life.

Composition

Everything benefits from a focal point, a visual story for the eye. With flowers, it can be a little hard to focus on just one area. Try to pick one off-centre patch and let everything else flow around that. Leaving fine detail until last helps to keep just one area of refinement, for focus. In a piece (left), I kept the background blurry and soft, so that