MY NEW VENTURE: FLOWER PAINTING 



CARLE J. BLENNER 



Lifting Flower Painting to the Field of Authentic Portraiture — 

 Dignifying the Once Dilettante Pastime by Treating it as a 

 Fine Art Requiring Both Accuracy and Breadth of Vision 



Editor's Note: As our readers have the privilege of seeing one of Mr. Blenner's charming old-fashioned 

 bouquets on the cover of this issue of The Garden Magazine, they will, we are sure, find this little personal 

 account of the portrait painter's conversion to flower painting of particular interest. It is heartening to the 

 gardener that artists of Mr. Blenner's caliber and training are turning seriously to this field of portraiture which, 

 though it has had an occasional devotee like Paul de Longpre and Alfred Parsons, has been on the whole rather 

 overlooked in the past. 

 On graduating from Yale, Mr. Blenner studied at the Julian Academy in Paris; received honorable mention at the Salon, and since his return has been 

 accorded recognition in a number of ways, winning the Hallgarten Prize at the National Academy, medals at the Pan-American, St. Louis, and Charleston Expositions, 

 at Boston, etc. 



The reproduction on the cover is of necessity much smaller than the original painting done in oil on a large scale with a good deal of brilliancy and verve, 

 unfortunately impossible to convey in this reduced and mechanical form. However, as the original with a number of others were on exhibition in New York early in 

 March and will be shown later in Cleveland and Chicago, some of our readers, at least, have the opportunity of judging for themselves of Mr. Blenner's success 

 as a flower portraitist. 



A rather interesting comparison is furnished by the February, 1922, cover (also an "old-fashioned bouquet,") done by the English flower painter, Mr. Frank 

 Galsworthy. The technique of these two renderings is quite dissimilar, though both are characterized by sincerity and a genuine appreciation of flowers. Mr. Gals- 

 worthy works in water-color in a finished, almost finicking manner, but there's no mistaking the veracity of his treatment and the depth of his first-hand friendship 

 with the things he paints. Mr. Blenner approaches his subject in quite another way, his viewpoint distinctly that of the artist, getting his effects through 

 composition and bold brush work, with oil as a surprisingly obedient medium, gaining in brilliance and luminosity what he loses in delicacy. To both men we 

 gardeners owe a debt of thanks! 



OST of my life I have painted portraits and genre sub- 

 jects. It seems strange that I have not painted 

 flowers before, being such an ardent admirer of them 

 and of beautiful gardens; in fact, all my family are 

 garden enthusiasts. Seeing so many flower paintings, mostly 

 water-colors, done by amateurs and thinking it rather effemi- 

 nate work is, I fancy, what really so long prevented me from 

 taking up my present hobby. 



A year ago last spring, while at my summer studio near New 

 Haven, 1 chanced upon some Lilacs in blossom, surrounded by 

 Apple trees in full bloom. I gathered a bunch of each in a 

 bright yellow bowl and painted them; the picture was fresh, 

 dainty, and suggestive of spring. It seemed to please the 

 little circle about me, so, encouraged, I started another, quite 

 brilliant in color, of flaming Oriental Poppies and Snowballs. 

 I was then completely inoculated with the lure of this new 

 field and as the season advanced painted the different flowers: 

 Dogwood; Iris; Peonies; Roses; some boquets of old-fashioned 

 blooms — Phlox, Snapdragons, Delphiniums, Zinnias, Fuchsias, 

 Marigolds, etc. — interesting combinations of color which I 

 enjoy doing most. 



In selecting a subject, I am more successful if I take a mass 

 of flowers and put them in a vase or bowl, without a too studied 

 arrangement, then by changing a bloom here and there I often 

 get an interesting composition, some accidental effects helping 

 materially. Advice from nearby florists has been very useful 

 in preserving my boquets; I was told to put the stems in boiling 

 water, allowing the flowers to steam. This keeps them fresh 

 a few days longer, and I have found it particularly true of 

 Dahlias and Peonies. One must be up and doing, for they 

 soon fade and droop and one of the chief charms of a flower 

 picture is its freshness and purity of color. As soon as the blooms 

 show signs of wilting, I replace them with fresh ones as nearly 

 the same in color and shape as possible and in the same position. 



I am fond of big masses of color, not showing many leaves 

 or stems. Artists have each their individual way of seeing 

 things. When painting flowers some present only blobs and 

 splotches of nice color, while others suggest the precise glory 

 of the seed catalogue, and others again strike the happy me- 

 dium, depicting the blossoms with sufficient botanical ac- 

 curacy to enable the genuine lover of flowers to recognize his 

 friends and yet with the breadth of treatment requisite to all 

 really good portraiture. It is this last style which appeals to 

 me and which I trv to follow. 



Flowers have character; you seem to feel the class and caste 

 distinctions among them — prim Zinnias; stately Peonies, 

 beautiful and dignified; shrinking Violets; sensuous Orchids 

 with their many varied hues and shapes; then the barbaric 

 splendor of hue in the new Dahlias; the cool, erect Delphinium 

 holding its head high. One realizes with Goethe that Nature 

 has expended all of her powers of color effectiveness and beauty 

 in her flowers — all that is delicate in tints; all that is lurid, 

 splendid, bizarre. To paint flowers one must appreciate their 

 delicacy of form and the rare color beauty of them. After 

 having painted beautiful women for so many years, it is but a 

 step in artistic understanding from the one to the other. 



IT IS such a joy to get into the country and do a little garden- 

 ing after a winter's work of portrait painting. Facing my 

 summer studio, I laid out some time ago a little old-fashioned 

 garden; first making a flat terrace, as the studio stands on a 

 hill. Around the central fountain cluster small flower beds 

 containing mostly old-fashioned flowers and bordered by a 

 hedge of Boxwood; the paths are white gravel and in one 

 corner is an old, curved English garden bench. A large Eng- 

 lish Button-ball tree furnishes some grateful shade during the 

 hottest part of the day. Along one side of this terrace runs a 

 stone wall covered by bright green vines with a mass of Holly- 

 hocks in front. On the other side I built a trellis eight feet 

 high, thirty long, over which eight kinds of climbing Roses 

 scramble at will, and a wonderful sight in June is this mass 

 of beautiful, varied color! 



There are several large springs in the lower part of the hill. 

 I made two artificial ponds to drain the land; one circular, in 

 which I put some tubs filled with Pond-lily bulbs, pink, yellow, 

 and the lovely white Victoria regina. In the centre I put a 

 larger tub with Lotus flowers, but the water was probably too' 

 cold for they did not flourish. Some goldfish introduced a 

 number of years ago have grown to a large size and their glint- 

 ing, reddish gold is very decorative amongst the rich green 

 leaves. They are useful as well for they feed on the scale 

 which attacks the Lily leaves. 



This pool really is quite a picture with the Lilies in blossom, 

 the goldfish swimming about, and a number of glittering blue 

 dragon-flies fluttering above. Occasionally, too, a green frog 

 will come out and sit on one of the leaves apparently to gaze at 

 some beautiful white Lily — a humorous twentieth century 

 " Beauty and the Beast." 



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