Painting Sunflowers en Plein Air

Join me for a plein air oil painting session among the incredible sunflower fields at Sunflowers on Kent near Kalbar, Queensland, about an hour outside Brisbane. A group of us headed out during the Queensland summer to paint these enormous sunflowers — some with heads almost the size of dinner plates — against a backdrop of green fields, distant hills and a wonderfully dramatic sky. For this painting, I'm not trying to reproduce every sunflower or every leaf. My approach is loose, painterly and impressionistic. I'm interested in capturing the rhythm of the scene, the intensity of the colour and, most importantly, my emotional response to being there. I begin with a strong red underpainting, deliberately choosing a colour that complements the dominant greens of the landscape. From there, I work largely from dark to light, gradually building the composition while saving the strongest highlights for later in the painting. One of the biggest challenges with a field of sunflowers is deciding what not to paint. Rather than treating every flower equally, I establish a small group of sunflowers as the focal point and allow the flowers further away to become less saturated and more suggestive. As the painting develops, cadmium yellows, oranges, reds and greens begin to bring the scene to life. I also talk about the very different experience of painting plein air in oils compared with acrylics, why I keep my initial oil layers relatively thin, and how I use large brushes and expressive marks to prevent myself from becoming caught up in unnecessary detail. Perhaps my favourite part of painting sunflowers is forgetting what I think a sunflower is supposed to look like. Instead, I squint at the scene and look for shapes, values and relationships. A few carefully placed marks can suggest petals, leaves and stalks without describing everything — leaving something for the viewer's imagination. This was a challenging painting on a larger panel in a relatively short two-to-three-hour plein air session, but also an incredibly playful and enjoyable one. Thanks for watching, and if you enjoy plein air painting, expressive oil painting and the Australian landscape, please like the video and subscribe to the channel for more painting adventures. #PleinAirPainting #OilPainting #SunflowerPainting #AustralianArtist #LandscapePainting #Kalbar #QueenslandArtist #ImpressionistPainting #PaintingTutorial #sunflowers 0:00 Painting Sunflowers at Kalbar 1:44 My Impressionistic Approach 3:37 Underpainting 4:49 Creating a Strong Focal Point 5:48 Oils vs Acrylics Outdoors 7:31 How I Simplify Sunflowers 9:19 Building the Yellows, Oranges & Lights 12:59 Suggesting Detail with Brushstrokes 13:59 Finishing View my website https://jasonhawkins.art I use Rosemary & Co Brushes : https://www.rosemaryandco.com?u=JASON...