How I Use the Harmonic Armature in this Large Rose Peony Painting

Exuberant, Ephemeral | 18x36 inch oil and graphite on ACM | © 2022 Christine Mercer-Vernon

Every year I sign up for a peony CSA from a local flower farm and the first bouquet of the season contains these gorgeous rose peonies. They have this beautiful blooming habit of opening really wide and the size of them always astounds me.

Their only downfall… they fade really fast! Which means painting them is much like a cardio workout. So when I set out to create this large multi-peony composition, I knew it was going to be a fun challenge.

The start of each painting usually begins with finding a few main focal flowers, then I build out from there.
© 2022 Christine Mercer-Vernon

The most important part of my process is how I compose my botanical paintings as I go. In order to do this effectively, so I don’t ‘lose control’ of the composition, I employ the principles of dynamic symmetry and rely on the harmonic armature for placement of each flower, stem, and leaf.

The armature is endlessly fascinating and while I use it mostly to find structure and balance within my floral paintings, its adaptability makes composing as I go much easier. While most floral artists will arrange their flowers prior to painting, I choose stems one at a time and add to the composition as I go.

Here is the armature laid over the completed painting showing how I used the angles and points of intersections to find areas of focus and to arrange the stems. | © 2022 Christine Mercer-Vernon

Once all the peonies were in place, placement of the bachelors buttons were worked out first, then I began choosing stems to paint.

It’s not unusual for there to be vases and vases of flowers in many stages of blooming to fading scattered around the studio during a painting. I keep each stem until finished just in case I would need to refer back to them for an adjustment.

So I don’t have lines on the panels, tracing paper is used to draw out the armature for each panel size. I’ll overlay that onto the panel then place another sheet of tracing paper on top to create line drawings of each stem that can moved around and tweaked prior to transferring.

Sometimes I will sketch directly onto the panel with paint and use strings that I stretch to each corner and small tick marks made along the panel edges.

Observing my floral subjects over weeks and sometimes months, the armature allows me to add stems over the course of the blooming cycle of whatever flower I am painting

If you’re interested in learning more about dynamic symmetry and the harmonic armature I highly recommend seeking out courses and books by Juliette Aristides and downloading this free 200+ page book, The Art of Composition, by James Cowman.

Exuberant, Ephemeral | 18x36 inch oil and graphite on ACM panel | © 2022 Christine Mercer-Vernon

All words, artwork, and images © 2024 Christine Mercer-Vernon