Florence Market

We went to Italy a number of years ago and hands down my favorite city was Florence. I could have stayed there for weeks just wandering around the streets. The market there was fabulous, selling everything from leather goods to any kind of fresh food you could dream of. The merchants were engaging and I took a lot of photos. This painting is of a man who was selling fresh vegetables. The overhead light served as a kind of spotlight , making the scene more dramatic. I had a lot of reference material to paint for a long time afterwards.

Room to Grow

This garden scene had some great light and I wanted to capture it. Green can be boring but a varirty of shades can save it from that . The reds and oranges make it delucious!

Off line

There are a lot of tulips for sale in the grocery stores right now. We have some bulbs planted but glad there are some available  until the ones in the ground show up. I have always loved the shapes of these flowers— they are such a cross between old fashioned and modern. The mason jar is the perfect vesseel for them.

Constellation

Of course my landscape has flowers in it! I jhave done plenty without flowers but this type of landscape does give me a lot of pleasure to paint.The most important thing I think for a landscape like this is to show depth. The larger flowers changing to smaller ones in the distance does the trick.

Field Work

I have painted several meadow paintings lately and this one is too;
only more of a close up.Iris  have always appealed to me so this was a fun painting to do. Maybe it is a frog’s eye view- a different perspective.

Future Perfect

I love painting bright colors but they always need a neutral color for a place to rest the eye.There are some beautiful paintings that have so many bright colors that it can be exhausting to look at them. It is a little bit like a good song on the radio that is just too loud; we can’t appreciate the beautiful sound.I like to show a variety of grays to make the painting more interesting. Although I mix a lot of the grays I paint, I do buy some already mixed that I then add to warm or cool colors . The latest one I bought is called pewter- it looks metallic and it is fun to use.

Absolutely Right

Sometime when I am painting a large painting I notice some areas of the painting that I really like. They would be able to stand alone as a painting. This is one such painting; taken from a larger painting. Thee complementary colors of yellow and purple work very well- color wheel rules!

Our Lips are Sealed

Everytime  I paint something it is usually a mystery how it will turn out. I have something specific in my mind
 and all intentions to have the painting  turn out exactly as I plan. But they usually take on a life of  their own; kind of like when playing with a Ouija board. Even though this painting didn’t follow the plan in my head , I like it so that other painting will appear sometime , just not today!

Agent 99

It is  not always easy to name  paintings. There is not an endless supply of names that include summer or spring otr flowers. What often happens is that While painting or after I have finished,  a name comes to me. For some reason the TV show Get Smart popped  into my head. Agent 99 played by Barbara Feldon was a sophisticated secret agent with a sleek modetn haircut; much more capable than her male counterpart. Something about these flowers reminded me of her- feminine but with a little edge.

First Things First

Yes, zinnias are some of my favorites. Although I have been painting some landscapes lately with more panoramic views, I still love a closeup that shows off just the flowers.Color is such fun to paint. Some of the paintings in the decorating world lately have been gray , white and gray. I do love neutrals but they can be pretty boring without some bright hues. Nothing lifts the spirits like color. My  90 year old aunt recently passed away.. I was talking to my cousins about her and they said a favorite phrase she often said to them was” don’t you want to put on a little lipstick? It will make you feel better.”

Sliding Scale

Simple vases of flowers are a favorite thing to paint. It gives me a chance to focus on the important thing- the flowers. I love painting the large color shapes then break them down into actual flowers by painting in negative and positive strokes.It somehow all comes together like a puzzle and with that comes the satisfaction of completing the puzzle.

Class Action

Lighting is everything. A flower in the bright sunlight is so different than the  same one on a cloudy day. The light brings out the bright highlights and deep shadows; making the painting more interesting. The result is one that catches the viewer’s eye.

Elegant

I posted this painting and the name of it is Elegant. It is in honor of my dear Aunt Willa whose funeral I attended today. She was 90 1/2 and able to live in her own home until a month ago. She was an amazing woman who retired at age 82 . She was widowed in her 50’s and continued to live a full life, traveling with family and friends. I aspire to be like her, a strong independent woman ahead of her time.

Wake Me Up

We plant daffodils and tulips every year to bring a little joy come Spring. There are so many varieties in color and shape of the daffodil. One especially good thing is that they come back every year so I am growing quite a collection. I love the tulips but they are like the city mouse; a little too weak to make a return appearance!!

Sanctuary

Gardens are so popular because humans find such satisfaction in growing things and looking at beauty. I think there is some psychic healing that can happen in a garden; the space can be a kind of sanctuary space. I can’t think of a better place to wind down after a long day.

Penny’s Yard

i have a friend who has always lived out in the country. A group of us go out to her house every June for a pool party and I enjoy taking a lot of photos of the interesting things around her house and yard. Her husband asked me to paint this churn and these pots as a surprise for Christmas.The churn had belonged to his mother and was a sentimental favorite. I did the painting and she was thouroughly pleased and surprised.

Wonderful Tonight

Although I don’t often paint abstractly; there was something about this bucket of flowers that begged to be more abstract than usual. It has turned out to be one of my favorite paintings. I sometime get more attached to some more than others. This is one I painted after recuperating from eye surgery for a few weeks. A nice break does wonders for the soul— and the painter.

Keeping Score

I painted this watercolor a while ago. It was fall and a friend had brought several beautiful mums to paint. The baskets were the perfect neutral contrast to the colors of the mums. When painting bunches of flowers I always start out with a block of color, then use negative shapes to change them into flowers. This is especially tricky when painting in watercolor because I can’t just wipe the paint off or paint over things like I can in oil painting.When I get the painting just right there is no other pleasure like it.

Lilac Love

Often the most simple set up is the most effective. This painting combines lilacs with  white mock  orange blooms. My dad grew the mock orange for years and they lined the fence lines at my parents’ home. I like to paint them as a memorial to him but also the white adds that perfect lightest value to make a good painting. I try to have some arrangement of darkest dark, medium and lightest white for a successful painting. To me that is more important than perfect drawing. Happy New Year. Last year was great but not necessarily the best for some family members. I am looking forward to a year filled with good health for everyone.