The Flowers of Summer: Bottle Painting

Ah summertime…

I’m told that the summer months are a slower time in the live event space. That’s okay with me since it’s my most productive time of the year in terms of personal learning. I usually spend my summers beefing up on skills and finishing courses I had to leave behind during the school year.

I spent most of last summer learning to draw florals to engrave them. I just found them so beautiful! At some point…maybe mid-summer, I started to feel I was moving in the right direction with my floral drawing goals.

Fun fact: It was florals that made my first engraving event so successful. After sitting for hours with no visitors, I got one person that brought her bottle to my table. I went all out with a floral on the back of the bottle…Suddenly, my table started developing the longest line I’ve had to date!

Then, earlier this year, I began bottle painting too. I knew a little to keep me afloat. Also, I felt having a background in painting, no matter how far back, could help me a little. But, I imagined I would set aside this summer to learn to draw more flowers and paint them too.

I’m nothing if I’m not a goal-setter.

You may recall, florals do not come easily to me. I was more of a portrait artist growing up. But, years ago, I developed an interest in botany. I got a few books, a magnifying glass, and some watercolors. Since I was an oil painter in school who sometimes dabbled in gouache, I was going to have to teach myself a new way of working. Those paints are much more heavier-bodied than watercolor. But, I never got to pursue any of it since making a living was way more important at the time.

Fortunately, I have time today…at least until the school bell rings again.

So, this summer, I have been practicing a flower a day (more like night into early morning…) in Juniper Calligraphy’s Fundamentals of Bottle Painting Course…and it has been the most relaxing way to bounce back from this past school year!

That said, bottle painting does require some practice to get used to the slick surface of glass. For the most part, it is done alla prima, meaning ‘all at once.’ Although you work in stages, unless the painting is in-studio, there’s usually not much time to walk away and come back to the work as you might in sustained painting …And, to work efficiently, you need to work the whole composition at once.

It also utilizes an impressionist take on painting in the sense that you are not usually trying to paint the subject in any photorealistic sense. Dashes and dots, rather abstractly placing one color next to another for the impression of a given subject is the overall idea. The method suits it.

The level of impressionism tends to vary from artist to artist working this way., however…and some opt to rely more on drawing the structure through their bottle paintings instead as there’s really no right way to do it. Bottle painting is highly adaptable to whatever point of departure you want to take…Keeps things interesting!

The basics of bottle painting are covered in the course, including supplies and equipment, some tips on painting in the live event space, and a modification of a “one and done” painting technique for faster painting during live events. All students are encouraged to join the accompanying Discord group for feedback and community.

If that wasn’t enough, there are also Zoom painting parties held throughout the year that are added to the course as recorded videos to help you learn more flowers. That’s where I have been spending the bulk of my time this summer.

There’s actually a lot of value packed into this course! Once you’ve finished with it, should you itch to try more, there’s an advanced bottle painting class to follow. The advanced class even includes a monthly feedback session by Zoom. One word of caution…the stuff gets addictive after a while. You’ll put yourself out of your studio filling it up with paint.

After all this practice, I decided to ask my friends on IG if they thought I should try a project rather than a random bottle for my next practice.

After the votes came in, I tried to put together my own little composition on a Ja’dore roller ball I had in my studio. What do you think?

There are definitely things I would have done differently if I tried it again. But, I’m not going back into it. That was a pretty fun, little project and I like to leave my ‘unit reviews’ as is so I can see how far I’ve grown the next time around. Besides, my favorite way of working is alla prima…definitely works for my lifestyle.

Now, I’m still working my way through the flowers in the beginner course, although I don’t believe you have to do all of them consecutively before jumping to the advanced class, if that’s your preference. In fact, as of this writing, I don’t even believe the beginner course is a requirement to take the advanced course. 🤔

The flowers that are presented in FBP for Beginners, I believe are largely requested by the students in the program. So your progress is based on your own comfort level. If you have been painting florals for a long time, feel free to skip around as much as you like…even to the advanced class. It’s all good.

But, Imma be over here taking it nice and slow…

Because, as with anything else, practice still means progress.

And I’m definitely here for that.

But, then again, an occasional check in to see what we’ve absorbed never hurts. I definitely have a couple other bottles sitting around to do some things with…Maybe painting…Maybe some engraving…Maybe both!

After all, it is summertime…and you just never know what flowers may come up.! 😉

What are your goals for the summer?