Painting Magnolias

We have a lovely Magnolia tree in our front yard that is so inspiring and gorgeous when it blooms. I find it hard to walk by without stopping to take at least a few photos of it. When it bloomed again this past Spring I had to finally paint it!

Small 6" x 12" Magnolia "Gentle Beauty" (available)

Close up of "Gentle Beauty"

 Using one of my photos as reference, I first painted only the small 6" x 12" version.

Small Magnolia in process

 I ended up loving it so much that I had to paint a larger version. I already had a 15 x 30 gallery-wrapped canvas (the perfect size for this!) prepped and ready to go! I wanted to make it similar, yet different enough and I had fun stretching myself to achieve this.

Large Magnolia painting 15" x 30" (sold)

Close up of large Magnolia

Close up of some of the great texture on large version

I added plenty of texture on the larger one because... well... I'm a texture junkie!

I love how both pieces turned out and can't pick a favorite between the two. Not a bad problem to have, right?

  

Large Magnolia in progress. Notice my photo at the top of the easel that I used for reference

I can't wait until the tree blooms again. I'm sure there will be plenty more picture taking and more Magnolia paintings too. What a blessing to have this inspiration right in front of our house... which means I can also see it from our kitchen window. Can you blame me for being a bit bloom crazy?

Our Magnolia tree back in March