A Celebration of Daffodils
Daffodils have been springing up in northern hemisphere lawns and across Instagram feeds the past few weeks.
I asked the community to share what daffodils they’re working on, their favorite parts, the hardest parts, and anything they’ve learned along the way. Here’s their amazing work and responses.
To see more of their work, click their name to find their Instagram or website.
Pam Thorburn
I love daffodils-they really do shout out that winter is over!! and I love th be able to capture this showy optimism in a painting that would hang on a wall to add all year round cheer!
However, painting daffodils is SO TRICKY! I think it's because it is hard to get much of a range of different values using yellow, and so to produce a painting with form means using alternate colours for shadows.
So this year I set about painting a series of daffodils, experimenting with techniques, and different media. The results can be seen on my IG @pamthorburnart.
One of the great things about painting daffodils is that you don't need to restrict yourself to making a representational painting.They lend themselves well to other styles, eg illustrative and naive style art.
They are so bold and cheerful and I think the best way to approach painting them.. (and to approach painting in general) is to experience the joy of daffodils through the joy of play and experimentation-that way you can capture the essence of the flower!
Gwynn Hamilton
I’m a flower farmer so I have avoided painting flowers until this year. I never wanted to try to compare with the original. But everyone else is painting flowers, and I have access to the freshest and most diverse, so why not.
Daffodils were challenging because I couldn’t capture the amazing color in the trumpet and maintain an accurate depiction of the depth. The frills on the cup made this version more satisfying.
Sara Parker
I love trying to capture the light and darks of a daffodil flower. It’s so so tricky (yellows, rights!?), but so satisfying when you get it right!
I think I get close to achieving those lights and darks when I don’t mess around too much with the flower. Trusting my initial brush strokes and not overworking the paint seems to get me there faster (aka the last image attached). Also, when I mix my own purples to tone down my yellows I think I get a better result.
“Flowers for Ukraine” (in their country’s blue and yellow colors)
The most difficult thing in a representational painting is to keep the freshness and looseness, yet describe the subject enough to be recognized. This is often my first step to get to know my subject then I like to go on and paint another painting more abstractly, maybe to the point of non-objective… but, keeping the spirit of daffodils and friends.
Anna Edwards
I love the challenge of depicting the bloom shape from various angles.
I find capturing the values in all the shades of yellow to be very tricky.
Using a handful of different yellows was helpful. I also used yellow oxide and green gold as a base for the darker values after adjusting them with complimentary colors.
Amy Packer
Daffodils are so distinct and such a hopeful harbinger of spring in these parts. I love the way they stand out against a typically still fairly bleak, wintery landscape. As for painting, I love the contrast the bright yellow against the dark background. And developing the base of colors that leads up to the yellow POPPING. Creating that base of dull oranges and shadows.
The trickiest part: Creating that base of colors so that the yellow really pops. 😆 Some of the yellows are soft, some are more bold. Creating that contrast in a limited hue is a fun challenge, thought.
Ttwo things I've learned: 1) Start with dull oranges and work your way to those lemon-y tones. 2) varied shades of purple in the shadows create a lovely contrast that helps that yellow to glow even brighter.
Diane V. Mulligan
I love the way daffodil petals catch the light and the wave they dance in the spring breezes, but both of those make them hard to paint.
Another challenge is capturing the shape, as there’s always some foreshortening to deal with.
I paint with watercolor. This spring I’m trying to focus on less is more as an approach to these challenges. I have to remember I’m trying to convey the feeling of a daffodil but I’m not doing precise botanical illustrations.
I’m also trying to lean into the urban sketching mindset of trying to convey what I see without altering it to be “pretty.” For instance in my study of a clump of daffodils, I included a couple dried, dead leaves strewn around.
Jessica Facchine
Here is my take on painting daffodils. I attempted to make gelli prints with the only flowers we had in our yard, Daffodils. It wasn’t picture perfect, for sure, but I learned a lot!
I wanted to try to print daffodils using the gelliprint method as I am so interested in the fragile-looking details of the petals.
In printmaking, the trickiest part was ensuring the flower was flat so that the paper would catch each part of the flower
I approached this challenge the same way I approach all new things – with a LOT of grace. I know that the first time I try something, it won’t be great, but I do it anyway because I want to learn to be better.
Emma Buckley
My daffodils are painted them on glass not canvas.
When painting these I've learns to be careful with scale, too big and they don't look real, too small and you can't add any details with my medium.
The trickiest part of the painting was how to group them to look aesthetically pleasing.
I've learned to be patient and take my time to plan out the placement of each flower, particularly when the other flowers can be see through the vase.
Allison Moir-Smith
I found them inspiring and hard! Hard not making the dark yellows just green. And the shapes. And the wacky petals. A huge challenge.
Georgia Youngs
I am a painter who loves to paint flowers. Living in Vancouver BC, daffodils are abundant as one of the first flowers announcing spring time is upon us. After a long winter of rain and more rain their cheery yellow is a welcome respite. Their trumpet centre heralds Hope for us all of a better weather with sunshine and warmth.
I’ve painted lots of them over the years mostly from photos I’ve taken of the massive flower bed that is in front of the home I rent. Last year I discovered in my neighbours yard white daffodils, that to me was a revolution as I love to paint white flowers.
Either white or yellow, flowers fall easily into my style of painting which is applying layer upon thin layer to build up the colour and tonal values I want. It is a ‘patience game’ for sure but I find I have absolute control over the process. If I actually count the layers it is normally around 30 – 40.
In looking them up to find what they represent I discovered that the daffodil represents Hope. So, during the lock down at the start of COVID, I found it fitting to paint a bunch of daffodils given to me, mid April 2020. I put them in a blue vase and placed it in my kitchen window on a sunny day and took lots of photos. I chose the one photo I wanted to use, decided on a large canvas 36 x 36, as I wanted the image to be larger than life, to have the glow of yellow radiate all the hope I needed at the time.
It worked for me and so shared the image with family and friends in an effort to offer them Hope that all would be well, eventually. It also hung for awhile in a well known restaurant when restaurants started to reopen and was a well loved painting by all the emails I received. It’s an image I love to share and hope it is one you can share as well.
I am doing the 100 day project creating 100 gouache paintings in a 100 days. As a part of this, I have painted so many daffodils.
What I love about them -
The unique shape of the flower inspires me to no end. I love setting them up with blues, reds and so on.
Biggest challenge -
Value changes in yellow is challenging in general and the daffodil is no exception. It is very easy to make the darks really dark and then the flower will lose its freshness. Keeping the value range quite narrow is a big challenge.
My approach -
I only paint from life and will highly recommend that to everyone who wants to paint a daffodil. Painting from life helps observe the subtleties better.
I have painted daffodils under different lighting conditions - sunlight, natural light, artificial light and so on. I also spend time just drawing the flowers which helps me understand their shape a lot more.
Here are some of my daffodil paintings, all from the last month only. I did 16 paintings in all, all of them in gouache.
Lara Beard
I love the color palette for painting daffodils.
I learned to paint daffodils from Amanda Evanston; she breaks it down step-by-step, so there isn’t a tricky part if painting abstract as opposed to realistic.
I learned using chalk pastels helps to soften the look of the painting.
I did find these challenging to paint!! I find adjusting the yellows to get warm and cool tones is a little tricky. The shapes are also a little complex.
What I learned is to simplify the shapes by squinting and not over analyzing the details. These studios have definitely motivated me to practice more daffodils!
I used your reference photo (loosely ) for the first painting. Both acrylic on cold pressed watercolor paper.
[Note from Kelly: Here’s the Instagram post Julie’s referencing. It’s the third image in the carrousel. ]
Shelley Hakonson
“And then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils”. Wordsworth.
I love all the yellows in daffodils and how welcome that colour is after our long, cold winters in the Yukon.
They don’t grow here this early in the season, but we have them in the grocery stores.
It was a learning process painting depth in the various views of daffodils I have here.
And I so enjoyed the challenge.
This is one of a series about hearts, and quotes, sayings and colloquialisms mentioning the word “ heart”.
Katherine Grossfeld
I enjoy painting flowers in general. Daffodils have an interesting gesture, facing the sun or nodding.
My favorite part of painting them is also the trickiest; rather than see them with individual petals, it is fun to see them as a clump of yellow with both more and less defined edges. And I enjoy their smooth stems that often twist against each other., making them fun to paint.
Bernard Dellario
What do you love about daffodils? First is that I think of them as harbingers of spring and renewal. Secondly, I adore their shape and delicacy.
What is the trickiest part of painting the flower? It's a rather complex form with the outward reaching petals and the trumpet center so they can be difficult to describe. Also the softer white ones are elusive with subtle color gradations. I love the challenge though!
How do you approach the challenge? Like most things, when I paint I try to remove myself from thinking too much about the thing that I am painting. I rather reduce everything to abstract interpretations.
I did a sort of abstract version of Daffodils yesterday. I used gouache on handmade paper. Lots of texture.
My last time painting them was more of a still photo look. This time I enjoyed using 4 different yellows and the oranges to get the center. I worked from a photo and a sketch I’d done.
Trickest part? Keeping enough shape in the flowers to know it’s a daffodil, but an abstract version.
I’d say, I learned when using gouache that the colors can be intense so using a smaller brush helps to control the process. Also, keeping my hand higher on the brush helps to provide a more abstract, less controlled look.
Thank you to everyone who generously shared their experience and work from daffodil season!