Planning Sketches for Julie's Garden Triptych

Earlier this year, I was approached about creating a painting, or series of paintings in honor of one of my loyal collectors' garden.  Armed with lots of photographs, we worked as a team to determine that a triptych (series of three canvases) would best capture her magnificent garden.

It wasn't until I visited the garden in person though that I actually got a real sense of the scale of the garden.  Truly a feast for the eyes, Julie's "woodland" garden is a haven full of interesting rock paths, ponds, sculptures, trees and of course a wide variety of plant specimens.  Many of these having special, personal significance to the gardener.  It's easy to see why this special place is a refuge and the hours spent working in it, keeping it resplendently beautiful are passionately fulfilled.

Mine is the task to portray this lovely sanctuary in a way that captures its spirit and sense of place.

So, to begin the project, we decided on a strategy - capturing a panoramic view of the garden.  For interest, we chose the left and right canvases to be 20 x 16" and the central canvas to be 20 x 24".  All three are 1.5" thick gallery-wrapped.  I rather like the portrait situation of the two flanking canvases creating an ethereal feel as well as allowing the viewer to peer deep into the scene.

I started with simple, very small scaled value sketches to work out the forms and composition of each canvas.  You can see that here:

Next, we met to discuss these sketches and refine our plan before going to the color planning sketches.  Learning more about the garden, plants that were significant, allowed us to make modifications to improve the composition and better meet the desired goal.  For example, in the central painting, the tree peony having special significance was given more prominence with the water fountain moved to the right.

Armed with this information, I was able to move forward and created the acrylic color sketches at 25% scale seen here.  Mirrored curving paths on the left and right canvases help move the eye back through the scene and tie the whole group together.  Stay tuned for more details as the project proceeds!