Have you ever tried painting flowers? We spoke to one Texas based artist who found her happiness through expressive painting.
Flowers are some of nature’s most beautiful wonders. From birth up until our final moments, flowers always play an important role in our lives. They are a gift that says so many things, without even having the ability to speak. Flowers represent love, appreciation, celebrations, support, and so many other feelings. They can even provide a burst of light during some of the darkest times. It’s no wonder they have been admired since the beginning of time.
Throughout the history of art, flowers have resonated with both artists and audiences alike. They are rooted in ancient art and are still equally as important today as they were eons ago.
TweetyJill Designs
Corpus Christi based artist Jill Haglund, found her “happy” by focusing on flowers as inspiration. In 2015, Jill founded TweetyJill Designs, and started creating original art focusing on the power of flowers. In addition to selling her art, Jill offers online painting classes, expressive painting art instruction, and hosts events and live painting sessions. She also offers golden paint and silver brush demonstrations. Jill also juggles many other projects related to her business. This includes prepping for and filming video lessons, social media promotion, website updates, and preparing for classed and exhibits.
Although Jill manages many different facets of her business, she arranges her schedule to allow for a ton of painting time. She is happy to have fulfilled her life-long dream of owning a dedicated home studio and painting as much as she likes.
Inspiration for Painting Flowers
Jill most always paints still life florals because she feels that flowers are always, without fail, such an inspiration. She wholeheartedly believes that flowers speak to her because they have so much life. She loves painting flowers because each has its own unique set of colors, textures, shapes, and fragrance, just like individual little personalities!
Each flower is bursting with color, so much so they actually seem to shout, “paint me!” Jill also feels that fresh flowers seem to bring joy to her studio and happiness into a classroom setting. They even work well in a myriad of still-life set ups.
Expressive Painting
In order to keep her paintings fresh and full of energy, Jill paints fairly quickly. She does this by following an expressive painting style, allowing her to paint “loosely” with bold colors and strong contrasts. She enjoys including textures, lines, patterns, and shapes in her composition.
The benefit of expressive painting is that the artist is not necessarily concerned with perspective, details, dimensions, or shadows. It’s a style of painting that allows individuals total freedom to express in paint how the mind’s eye “sees.”
Expressive painting also allows all types of painters to paint alongside each other. They are able to work together in a class without feeling competitive, stressed, or anxious about what they are creating. It changes the expectations and pressure on the attendees, especially first timers! This allows students to focus on their artwork rather than comparing their painting with their neighbor’s. Each artist observes their flowers, sketches them very loosely with chalk, and paints what they see. Jill reminds them to “Just express those flowers you see with paint!”
Lone Star Living
Among her favorite flowers to paint while teaching classes in Texas, are Lone Star Living bouquets. She sometimes walks around the HEB floral department and stops in her tracks when she sees the perfect bouquet. Everything aligns at once, almost in a glance—the bouquet, the color palette, and the vase.
It inspires her and literally leads her to the easel every time, creating an experience that never ceases to disappoint.
Jill feels that Lone Star Living bouquets are consistent with a beautiful variety of fresh flowers that change each month. Even better, they are readily available at the local HEB grocery store. Lone Star Living is an ongoing source of encouragement for Jill, and has become her “floral family.” When instructing, Jill prefers that each person works with their own personal floral arrangement. This makes the experience much more enjoyable for everyone.
Painting Flowers: A Rewarding Experience
One of Jill’s greatest rewards as an art instructor is watching her students grow excited during the process. Once they experience the excitement of painting flowers and joy of “being engaged in the moment,” they understand the happy part of painting.
Many even want to do it again! Seeing that delight on their faces, especially if they were intimidated when they first walked into class, is a gift.
It’s also extremely rewarding for Jill to see lots of big smiles as the new artists take pride in their unique end result. Jill enjoys hearing her students talk about where they will be including their artwork in their home décor, adding that an extra treat for them is displaying it next to their fresh bouquet! However, the biggest gift that Jill gives her students is a comfortable place where they can relax, enjoy the experience, meet new people, and possibly discover a new favorite life-time hobby!
If there’s one lesson we can take away from Jill, it’s that painting is a happy hobby that can enlighten a person’s perspective and mood, allowing them to be in the present moment at all times.
In the future, Jill hopes to someday offer her expressive floral cards at HEB floral departments. For now, though, she is excited about providing an enjoyable emotional outlet, encouraging people to let go of stress and worries for a period of time as they focus on the present by painting flowers.
As TweetyJill Designs continues to stretch its petals, Jill would like to invite you to her Vimeo channel to watch her many free expressive painting instructional videos. It may just be a chance to water your interests and give a new hobby an opportunity to bloom!