Flower painting workshop

I've recently been trying to develop a programme of art and craft based workshops that I can offer to arts centres. I devised a one-day workshop on Flower painting, using acrylic paint, and held it at a local centre. I was really looking forward to it as I'd never taken a painting workshop before, but its something that I love to do in my spare time when I get a chance! The proposal was that each person bring a flower or plant and by the end of the day they would have produced a painted canvas. I was really pleased with the response as the class was fully booked out!
When you take an adult class as you get a real mix of people - those with no idea where to start and others with so much experience and ability that you wonder why they came in the first place! Its really interesting to see where different people will take the ideas you give them at the start and what they will end up with! The photos I've included below show two of the pieces that really stood out to me during the workshop :

The lady who painted this geranium hadn't painted much before and she was so thrilled and excited at the result - it was really great to see! I love the way she used complementary yellows, purples and pinks and blended and scumbled the paint in the background - the photo really doesn't do it justice!
In the russet coloured one, the girl used sand and PVA to create a textural background and made her flower image much less realistic by using patterns and motifs she had collected from magazine clippings - very effective I thought!