'Yellow tulips in old jug' acrylic/mixed-media on canvas © Mari French
I came across this painting of tulips that I did a couple of years ago (bought by a hotelier on the Isle of Skye where we used to live). It made me realise I haven’t painted flowers for some time, yet I get enormous pleasure from them, especially tulips.
Some of my flower paintings have been rendered in more of a ‘grunge’ style as I think of it eg. ‘Roses and old wall’ (below) – I love the fragility of the petals juxtaposed with the texture of the peeling paint and old plaster. I’m not interested in painting ‘pretty pretty’ pictures of flowers, although I like to think my paintings give the flowers a kind of different beauty. My dilemma is if I describe my subject matter as ‘landscape, coast and flowers’ or similar, it inevitably sounds like I do the ‘pretty’ style. Any suggestions or opinions on how I might describe this style would be welcome.
'Roses and old wall' 40x80 acrylic/mixed-media on canvas © Mari French
Mari French RI : contemporary artworks 
Oh Mari I really, really, really love this one :o)
Beautiful.
thanks Sam, not sure which one you mean though, but good to get the feedback anyway! : )
I found a word! (well – more elegant than grunge lol!)
Détériorer
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/d%C3%A9t%C3%A9riorer#French
Détériorer – interesting word. thanks. I’ll be cautious about where I use it tho, I could come across as a bit pretentious lol! ; )
Ha! It is just so hard to find something word-wise that doesn’t sound disagreeable – I mean books and mirrors can be foxed, which sounds interesting – whereas degraded has a hint of distressed-gentlewoman about it lol!
I’m not sure there is a solution or definitive word for this one! I’ll keep my eyes open tho…
I can only feel interested in drawing/painting flowers once they’ve lost their bloom – there’s nothing like a lily or a tightly-packed rose coming undone or a great basket of dead-headed blooms. I don’t know how you’d describe it though … I love the great zoom of colour in the tulips and the fantastic texture of the roses.
I know what you mean Elaine re the dying blooms. When I finished the roses one I stood back wondering where it had come from as I hadnt done anything like it before. I could envisage myself just doing work like that, although that hasn’t proved to be the case (yet?). I love the colour and texture of peeling old walls and the patina and surface of old degraded things in general (esp old worn mirrors).
I’m not sure how to describe it but I do know that I love the roses/old plaster walls but am not keen on the yellow tulips – there looks to be more texture in the roses painting
Thanks Lynne. There definitely is more texture in the roses painting, but I think I’ll keep both styles going, I like the sunshine spilling out of the yellow tulips : )