Small florals

I had intended on painting three 5 x 7 watercolor florals as possible entries to the Small Works Exhibit, but I only managed to paint two.  Like the small landscapes I am using Strathmore windpower 140 lb watercolor paper.  

The first one I painted is a small version of the apple blossom cluster I painted last spring.  I positioned the flower cluster so that it fills 7/8 of the paper.  Since this left only small bits of background I didn't mask the flowers, I just carefully painted around them.  I used a palette of Cobalt Blue, Chrome Yellow, Aureolin Yellow, Quinacridone Gold and Quinacridone Rose.  

The second is a closeup of a Swamp Sunflower.  I masked the sunflower and used a wet-on-wet glazing technique I learned in Margaret Walsh Best's workshop to paint the background.  I used Cobalt Blue, Chrome Yellow, Aureolin Yellow and Quinacridone Gold to produce the impression of an out of focus field of flowers.  I used the same pigments along with Burnt Siena, Raw Umber to achieve the variety of shades in the close sunflower.  The final touch is a Cadmium Red floret.  A sunflower is a composite flower.  A corolla of 'petal-like' ray flowers circle the dense disk of tightly packed small florets.