Lost in the Garden

 I do floral compositions more than landscapes but do enjoy landscapes as a change of pace. This landscape combines my love of flowers with the outdoors. The flowers draw the viewer in toward the buildings as the blooms get smaller as they recede.

Summer Romance

 Viewers often ask if I draw my subject before I paint. I usually take a brush and a thinned color from my palette to block in the placement of the basic shapes. If I was a beginning painter I might do a lot of preliminary sketches but I have been painting for so long I have a pretty good idea for placement and scale. Since I am using oil; I can also just wipe it off if I don’t like it. I find that I have a fresher painting if I don’t have a tight drawing that I am trying to follow.

Likewise

 These vases had a kind of 1950’s vibe to them ; what you might have had flowers brought to you in the hospital as you recovered  from some kind of surgery  or maybe a baby being born. They may have sat on the window sill for a week because as you know back then hospital stays were at least that long. Now you go in for heart surgery in the morning and they send you home in the afternoon.  Not that modern medicine is so great— all about the money!

Daily Story

 My favorite part of this painting is the white flowers. They are the star of the show and spice up the neutral colors of the flower arrangement. Without the white the lovely purples and blues wouldn’t sing as beautifully. A lesson to all of us that we need each other!