I have made paintings and drawings of flowers periodically since I first started painting and drawing. Like most sentient beings, I am moved by the beauty of the color and variety of forms of various types of flowers. But, my initial motivation to make drawings of them came also from two of my favorite sources: Egon Schiele and Vincent Van Gogh. As an undergraduate student, I did a number of pictures of Black-Eyed Susans that are direct descendants of their sunflowers. As I learned more about other artists, there were many more who focused on flowers at various times in there careers. Charles Rennie McIntosh, Emil Nolde, Eduard Manet, Piet Mondrian and Jim Dine are only a few that made significant bodies of floral work, often on paper in pencil or charcoal along with watercolor or gouache. I found these intensely enjoyable and immensely inspiring. Jim Dine’s book of plant and flower drawings in mixed media has been tremendously valuable to me as a primer and refresher on drawing.

**Black-Eyed Susan** watercolor/gouache/charcoal 30×22” 1981

The group of drawings of peonies I recently finished is significant to me because they have consolidated the working momentum I wrote about in the last blog entry. As I said, I had a long fallow period in the garage and I only recently got back in gear. We had friends over for dinner and as often happens, one brought flowers as a gift. After looking at them for a couple of days, I got the urge to draw them so out to the garage they went. I started in pencil on some sheets of Bristol which is hard and smooth so pencil slides and moves easily across the surface. I favor Extra Smooth Ebony pencils which are relatively soft and responsive to pressure. I have a tendency to want to control my line quite a bit, maybe too much at times, so working with ebony pencil on Bristol tends to loosen things up a bit. The hard surface also resists absorption so watercolor tends to sit on the surface, taking more time to sink into the paper and producing unpredictable variations of color and value in washes. I have come to love this and court it, at times.

I really enjoyed sitting and looking hard at the flowers and letting go with the line a little bit. Being a little surprised with the line that can be achieved this way is lovely. I don’t always take pleasure in working. More often than not, painting and drawing is just hard work. I just don’t have that kind of “La-la land” attitude that making pictures is fun. Typically, it is difficult and frustrating. In any case, I don’t make work to enjoy myself, I’m compelled. I do it to try to communicate an idea of some sort. That does not necessarily involve fun. I don’t always like what I have done, either. But these peonies I enjoy, even if I think I can do better.

Another aspect of these pictures that I find interesting is that they are all watercolor. This is relatively rare for me. I have been much more involved with gouache rather than transparent watercolor. They are related, but quite different mediums. Straight watercolor is something I have been thinking about for a while. I taught watercolor every semester for the last five years of my teaching career so I did a lot of practice and demos for the classes and did deeper research into the history of the medium and the painters known for using it. I find it fascinating and the work of painters like Durer, Turner, Homer, Sargent, Burchfield and Hopper is just as complex and powerful as that of any painter in any medium.

Anyway, what I was doing with the peonies depended on using the white of the page, but also and especially on the toned sheets, Chinese white, which I never used before now. Its very different than white gouache and requires a subtlety of mixing and layering of application with which I am still becoming accustomed. Its a challenge, but one that is engaging and exciting even at this late date in my practice.

Remy Miller

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A Group of Flowers