There's something refreshing about having windows in a workspace. They give you a place to rest your eyes and mind for a moment as you look out at whatever might be through that window. They bring in much needed light and life.
But my mom's office didn't have a window - so she asked me to make her one! She asked for a garden with flowers and light. I asked a few questions to get a better idea of what she wanted - daytime or sunset? Water or no water? What kinds of colors?
From here, I did some research by gathering reference photos. I took most of my inspiration from Istanbul's famous tulip festival that we had just seen. We all were amazed at the beautiful flowers, the brilliant colors, the sweet smell, and the abundance of tulips, but my mom especially loved it.
While I drew inspiration from the whole park, I used the first two photos as my main inspiration. From these I created a very simple sketch to show my mom the idea. She said she liked it, so I began drawing the basic shapes out onto the canvas.
From here, I had a ton of fun. I tend to get bogged down easily with details, but I put away my references for the most part and worked with my own colors and textures. I painted a smooth sky with a broad brush, worked with the tip of a thick brush to get the texture of the trees on the far away hill, used the same splotchy brush for the texture of the grass on top of the smooth basic green layer, started with a smooth blue for the pond, and used several layers of different colors and values for the flowers as well as smooth horizontal strokes for the reflections in the water.
I had painted over the trees at first to get a smoother background, so next I went over the trees with opaque white paint so that the brown would show well on top. I painted a few layers of brown, and then used a fan brush to get the splattered, leafy effect I wanted for the trees. Using both a dark and medium green allowed me to differentiate between the two types of trees and add some variety to the top of the painting. Finally, I painted in the flowers in the foreground with a base of pinkish-orange, smoothly blending in red and dark brown for the dark values and yellow for the highlights.
I finished the painting hours before I packed up my paints and brushes - I moved to the States two days later! I handed it to my mom the next day - she had tried not to look while I was painting it - and she absolutely loved it. It made me so happy to see my artwork make someone that happy and reminded me why I love doing this. I'm proud to call this my last work of art in Turkey for the time being!
My Own Little Garden Window