Artistic Explorations: Mother's day, Everyday!

This painting was created by following another inspiring class by Kristina Bril’kova. While I felt more confident this time with the color palette and overall composition, I found myself wrestling with the central element—the bouquet of flowers. Capturing the essence of the floral arrangement in a way that felt natural and emotionally resonant proved to be a real challenge. Still, through persistence and reflection, I learned a great deal.

The painting is built on layers of texture and acrylic, and while the technique wasn’t new to me, this piece offered new insights into balance and cohesion—especially when working with such a delicate subject.

• Composition and color blocking

• Details and textural accents

• Struggling with bouquet

Reflections:

1. Decide early on where the light source is. Details in the bouquet become brighter and more refined where light hits, and more muted and darker farther from the light. Flowers deeper in the bouquet should also appear darker than those closer to the viewer.

2. Plan carefully where the dominant element—like the bouquet—will be placed. It makes all the difference. It should make sense in the relation to the light source.

3. I repainted the bouquet several times. Sometimes the shape was off, sometimes the placement, and other times the flowers were too uniform, giving a “crafty” rather than expressive look. I had to start over more than once because I overworked it beyond repair.

4. One technique I developed and now use frequently is analyzing the composition with chalk—single color or multicolor. Chalk is easily erased and doesn’t damage the painting, making it ideal for brainstorming and correcting form and color placement visually before committing.

5. Finally, I added texture to the flowers—something the class paiting did not do. It turned out to be one of the best ideas. Texture immediately brought the bouquet to life and miracusly helped unify the composition in a way I couldn't achieve with 2D paint, even after 20+ attempts.

The painting found its forever home and I am so grateful !