Behind the Scenes of Glowing Garden Painting

For several months, Glowing Garden was a big secret – from its owner. She wanted to wait until it was completed to see it!

This 36 × 48-inch oil painting was a commissioned piece, and until yesterday, the person who commissioned it hadn’t seen any part of the painting. That made the process feel a little different from my usual work. Although I knew where the painting was going, I was unable to share my work in progress or get feedback along the way.

The painting was inspired by a corner of their garden filled with pots of colourful begonias, tucked beneath the canopy of a maple tree. The flowers were what first caught my attention—the reds, pinks, oranges, yellows and whites glowing against all the greens, dappled light and shadows of the woodland behind them.

I wanted to make this painting extra special.  This gardener is also a ceramic artist and she makes wonderful “Spirit” pots.  I am the happy owner of two of them.  So, as a surprise…I swapped out one of the pots from the reference photos and added in one of her very special hand-made pots.

Turning that scene into a painting took time. A lot of time.

Turning that scene into a painting took time. A lot of time.

Part of it was simply the nature of working in oils. There was plenty of waiting for layers of paint to dry. But the bigger part was the thinking and pondering.

There were many sessions when I would paint for a while, then step back and just look at it. Sometimes I knew immediately what needed to happen next. Other times, I needed to leave it alone for a few days and let the answer come to me. Sometimes I had to simply let it dry for a few days so I didn’t get my hands into it and make a mess. Spoiler alert – I did more than once!

Because it’s an oil painting, there were plenty of times when I had to stop simply because I could not remember where the wet paint was amongst all those flowers- and I’d discover it by mistake. Sometimes that was frustrating. Other times, well…it was useful. A few days away from the painting gave me a chance to look at it with fresh eyes and think about what it needed next.

Turning that scene into a painting took time. A lot of time.

Part of it was simply the nature of working in oils. There was plenty of waiting for layers of paint to dry. But the bigger part was the thinking and pondering.

There were many sessions when I would paint for a while, then step back and just look at it. Sometimes I knew immediately what needed to happen next. Other times, I needed to leave it alone for a few days and let the answer come to me. Sometimes I had to simply let it dry for a few days so I didn’t get my hands into it and make a mess. Spoiler alert – I did more than once!

Because it’s an oil painting, there were plenty of times when I had to stop simply because I could not remember where the wet paint was amongst all those flowers- and I’d discover it by mistake. Sometimes that was frustrating. Other times, well…it was useful. A few days away from the painting gave me a chance to look at it with fresh eyes and think about what it needed next.

Paint. Wait. Look. Think. Change something. Wait again.

So the painting progressed in a rather slow rhythm:

After several months, I finally reached the point when I realised there was nowhere left to put paint. All the tweaking and balancing was done. And then came the hardest part—keeping it under wraps until the reveal.

The secret was finally out.

The painting was revealed to its new owner, who got to see Glowing Garden for the first time. The painting was draped in a beautiful green velvet cloth waiting for her to remove it.

I’m always curious about that moment with a commissioned painting. After spending so many months with it, making hundreds of decisions and becoming very familiar with every part of the canvas, then suddenly it’s no longer mine to wonder about. It belongs to the person who asked me to paint it.