I didn’t intend to paint a Gentian, but my art friend Christel, who has me doing the challenge with her wanted to know if I could mimic the color of a Gentian Violet with oil pastels. I love these little darlings in a Spring garden, and we had plenty of them until our local rabbit decided to devour them each year! So now I enjoy through others photographs ~
Gentian Violet (7×5) oil pastel. This tiny flower, while center stage here is small and delicate – I tried many different hues in the blue and purple families, blending as I went along (cobalt blue, sapphire blue, pale blue, indigo, ultramarine and several violet/purples) working towards the blues you see here. Oil pastels range are limited and I couldn’t quite find the right mix to give the bluish/violet glow that I remember. To give the scene a little break from blue, a few streaks of burnt sienna were drawn in.
Onto #6 and also back to work on Grand Slam drawing ~ click onto image for a larger view.
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Oil Pastels by Mary 
Beautiful blues:)
Thank you Elena!
Yes you can!
🙂 ! Thank you so much!
Lovely dear Mary ❤ ~All the best to you!, Aquileana 😀
Thank you Aquileana! Have a lovely week ahead ~
LOVE IT !!! – what a marvellous colour that is, Mary !
Hi M.R. thanks very much – glad you enjoyed this little blue flower! Hope you have a wonderful week.
Started well with the Aussies winning the World Cricket Cup – not that that means anything to you. 😀
I agree with the others. Gorgeous work, Mary! I love the colors. I love the blueish glow. In fact, I’m now humming the “Blue Velvet” tune: “She wore blue velvet / Bluer than velvet was the night / Softer than satin was the light / From the stars . . .”
Enjoy the weekend!
Theadora
My dear Theadora, I’m sitting here laughing – you always surprise me, and a singer too! Oh I do know Blue Velvet and what a fabulous song to go with this painting. Thank you for your lovely comment, you’ve made my day. I just finished another painting and today I needed some soothing music in the background, so I was listening to Tony Bennett and loving every song (Tony Bennett Duets, An American Classic)! Have a beautiful weekend.
Magnificent! Love the blue intensity and simplicity of the flower!
Thank you so much Johannis – such a generous thing to say. Thanks and am so glad that you enjoyed this painting!
SO MUCH beautiful!!!!!
So appreciated Arlen!! Thank you, you’ve made my day – have a wonderful weekend my friend.
Blue flowers are so tricky, even to photograph. You have achieved a beautiful blue. I am attempting to sketch a flower a day. Ha! In a week, I have managed to do this only twice.
Thanks so much Gallivanta! Love your encouragement, it means a lot. You have such lovely gardens, I’m thrilled to hear you are sketching – I’ll bet with far more success than what you are seeing here with this series. Have a beautiful weekend and glad to see you.
What a wonderful blue and elegant surprise Mary, after yellow tulips then orange this marvelous beauty! Love blue flowers and this one is a star! Nice depth and texture, the background is such a great support, love how you worked in some burnt sienna. Your flowers start to flow so nicely, you getting comfortable with this challenge and that is reflecting back from your canvass!
Hi Eva, thank you so much for your generous comment and description. I wasn’t intending to do this flower, it was more of an experiment with color matching – purplish/blue in oil pastels, very tough. But enjoyable mixing and blending. You’re right I’m finally in a flow with this series, not totally comfortable but will get there. I’ve got some neat scenes lined up. Hope you have a wonderful weekend ~ take good care.
Surely will, wish you as well a most wonderful weekend!
You’ve got this right, Miss Mary,
depth of colour is essential here and you’ve mastered it.
Big Hugs
uncle john
Thanks Uncle John – glad you noticed, allows a nice throat to appear. Have a beautiful weekend.
Love those, Mary! Their colour is marvellous!
Thanks Ann-Christine! I like the color too, it’s appealing in some respects. Guess what I just saw my first butterfly of the season, how cool is that?!
Cool!
Love the depth here Mary you ‘ve made a superb colour with your pastels . The vividness reminds me of the Morning Glory flower .Enjoying this series very much !
Awesome Poppy – thanks so much! Ah yes you’re right about the Morning Glory, they are so delicate I wonder if they would fade with our Texas heat. I’m starting to warm up to the series and have some ideas on interesting pieces. Have a lovely weekend.
Ah, what a beautiful flower! Well done, my dear Mary!!!! 🙂 [love that color!]
Thank you my friend – that combination of colors is pretty awesome to work with. I was a bit hesitant to go so bold, but once I got started – well it was a pretty interesting journey. Thanks and hope you have beautiful weekend Marina. Take good care ~
You too, my dear Mary! 🙂
So vivid, Mary. It’s alive! 🙂
Thanks Jo – so small you’d miss them, but vivid enough to be the star! Have a great weekend, strolling about!
A stunning and beautiful blue!! I love the darkest part the most. Cheers!
Thanks Marick – the darkest part is Indigo (Holbeins, awesome color) and worked perfectly over the bit of dark Ultramarine. Have a lovely weekend.
Blue flowers are heavenly, and the colors of them almost impossible to reproduce..Even among the blue flowers it’s hard to find true blue. Most of them lean a bit into violet and purple. (Maybe that’s why they call them violets?) Forget-me-nots are the truest blue ones, in my book. This gentian of yours is beautiful, whatever color!
Thanks Cynthia! You’re right about the blues and darned if I didn’t run through a lot of oil pastels trying to mix/combine to get “that” color, but not to be – sometimes Mother Nature just has one over on us. When I planted our Gentians during the winter I didn’t know what to expect, and was I ever “wow’d” when they showed up – a big, thick patch of brilliant little blue flowers. Awesome. Thank you so much – hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Beautiful, Mary. I hadn’t heard of Gentian Violets before (I googled it), very pretty. I have a tiny vegetable garden in the summer and my resident rabbit will help himself. I really don’t mind as long as he leaves some for me!
Hi Geralyn, thanks so much! The first time I saw them in our garden, I was bowled over by how pretty they were. Rabbits, cute as they are – are about as destructive as they get in our gardens where we’ve lost many of our flowers. Love them, but would rather seem them across the street. Thanks again ~
Well said by Jet. Beautiful blending of the different hues in the blue, Mary!
Thanks Amy!
Luscious, Mary.
Thank you Sarah – glad you enjoyed the color!
I seem to remember essence of Gentian Violet being stroked onto bruises and such by my mother when we were children. I’d forgotten all about that.
That is very interesting – I’ll have to remember. Although our rabbit(s) devour these wonderful little flowers like they are candy. I never get to enjoy them any more.
We had something called Gentian Violet (very purple) that was put on wounds.
That’s the stuff. I’m glad to know I’m not alone!
It was used as hair dye, too.
Very nice work Mary. I love the color. ~Rita
Thanks Rita, different right? it is so unusual to see blue in a garden, these come and go in a flash (at least in the hot TX heat) but are really beautiful and cooling.
Yes, you did capture the beauty and depth of colour of this charming flower. Janet:)
Thank you Janet – oil pastels are perfect for vibrant colors, just not the glowing bluish-purple I was looking for here.
Oh my, that is gorgeous.
Thanks so much Mac – love your feedback!
Wow! I absolutely love blue flowers, your gentian is amazingly beautiful… thank you! I’m sure it will inspite me a poem 🙂
Thank you Frederic so much, what a wonderful compliment. Means a lot that my flower prompted inspiration – can’t wait to read the poem.
So pretty! I love that purple!
Thank you Francesca, there is noting prettier in a garden than to see some purple and blue break up all the green and add a bit of cool color with all the bright flowers.
Remarkable!
Thank you Ashok, really appreciate it!
Beautiful color and tones.
Thanks Lee!
So perfect, Mary. 🙂
Thank you Sylvia!
I love them too, Mary. Your painting is beautiful!
Thank you so much Jill!!
I’ve not heard of a Gentian violet but it must be very lovely. Blue being my favorite color I’m immediately drawn to your sweet painting Mary. I really like the different hues of blue and the way you handled the background. The colors work nicely together. 😊
Sounds like your rabbit problem is like our deer problem. We had to put fencing around our garden areas just to be able to even grow a tree! They eat everything in sight!
These flowers are really pretty close to the ground, and tiny – mine here of course is like the giant breed, lol! I was hoping to get the glowing blue, but didn’t quite succeed ~ Oh well on the rabbit front, the neighbor feeds them so we haven’t a chance to get rid of them. The hawks are always flying overhead, but we have so many bushes and shrubs that there are many places for the little ones to hid. Thanks Rhonda, I appreciate your comments and feedback!
You sure captured the essence and elegance of this lovely flower, Mary. 🙂
Hi Jet, thank you very much – for your nice comment! They are small and if you don’t notice as soon as they bloom, they’ll be gone before you know it.