Abstract Floral Photography At Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens WELCOME to…

Longwood Gardens About Purchased by Pierre DuPont in 1906 to preserve the landscape from developers, Longwood Gardens was originally supposed to be a unique place for the wealthy entrepreneur to entertain his friends. However, within a few years, Pierre transformed a simple country farm into one of the country’s leading horticultural display gardens. Today the 1,077- acre Longwood Gardens consists of varied outdoor gardens, ranging from formal to naturalistic in their landscape design, and 20 indoor gardens within a 200,000 square foot group of heated greenhouses. Longwood’s Conservatory contains 4,600 different types of plants and trees, as well as fountains.

Orchid Room

Cactus Room

Cactus Room

Lilly Pad Ponds

Out Door Gardens

Water Gardens

Drawing and Painting I Assignment: Collect 25-30 pictures of flowers that could be used for the final painting assignment. 2. 2-5 Plein-air contour line drawings of Flowers

Assignment 1: Pictures collected 25- 30 pictures of flowers thinking about: Color Theory Composition Interesting perspectives background

1. Color Theory Color theory should be thought about purposefully when creating a work of art or when collecting reference pictures. Decide if you want a more peaceful feeling or a more exciting feeling. Most of the time the background would be green because of the foliage that sits behind the flowers…so choose either analogous to create a peaceful, relaxing feeling or complementary colors for a more exciting, dynamic mood. Complementary: Red/Green Analogous: Violet/Green

ii. composition Composition refers to the layout of the picture. Think about: What is your focal point and where are you placing it? Is it radial, symmetrical or asymmetrical? Have you zoomed in to break the picture plane and abstract the image? *some if this can be done in Photoshop with the teacher** Radial Symmetrical Asymmetrical

III. Interesting perspectives Perspective refers to the viewer’s vantage point. Try interesting perspectives: Birds eye Underneath Side/3 quarter Birdseye Underneath Side

1V. background The background is one area that is under estimated and extremely important to consider. ALWAYS think about the background when taking reference pictures: Zoom in so much there is no background. Keep the background clean so it does not distract from the focal point Think about color theory when considering the background Zoomed In Clean vs. distracting Color theory

FINAL Floral Painting Example

Plein air Drawing Drawing outside is known as "Plein Air" drawing. Literally translated, this French term means "in the open air". Drawing and painting outside is a common thing for artists to do today, but in the late 1800s the Impressionists ventured out of their studios into nature to investigate and capture the effects of sunlight and different times of days on a subject, it was quite revolutionary.

Contour line Drawings of Flowers

Plein-air contour line drawings of Flowers 5 Plein-air contour line drawings of Flowers All drawings should be done in contour lines with pencil (lighly) or pen. **We can outline pencil drawings in pen later if needed. Each drawing should be on a separate page (5) Think about composition- draw big and have a prominent FOCAL POINT We will use these drawings as preliminary practice for an up coming watercolor unit.

Don’t do this….

THURSday: Meet for the bus at 8:45 in the COMMONS… Make sure you bring your supplies when you come to the commons. You will meet your chaperone and as soon as the busses arrive, we will board and be off! We have very little time at Longwood, so it’s important that every is EARLY so we leave on time. So don’t be late!!

You HAVE to enjoy yourselves! Field Trip Rules: Walk around with a partner… not by yourself! Check in with your chaperone! Know where to meet them and at what time. You have to pack a lunch/snacks for the bus… No food in the park- NO RESTUARANT TENTATIVE: Must be back to the bus by 12:45 so we can eat lunch and depart by 1pm. Depending on the bus driver and weather, we may be eating outside. You HAVE to enjoy yourselves!