Flashback Floral

 Everyone that's seen pictures of this in progress hates it

 or makes faces when I talk about how excited I am about it.

It makes me laugh out loud, smile and sing. I have the feeling that I painted this on a bus once in the 60's. The music in my head amuses me, memories and the lack of them occupy my mind and the paint shoots out my fingers.

Still Obsessed with Sunflowers

I don't know what I can say about this right now, I can't stay away and I don't know where it's going. Sometimes I'm just along for the ride, I just paint and don't worry about the rest. It may destroy itself...it may destroy me. I guess you'll need to keep reading to find out.

What Next?

I'm not sure where the background is headed on this so I'm adding bits of every paint color I've got hoping that some of them will spark an idea that will be as dynamic as the flower itself. So far it looks like I've got a long way to go.

oops! Looks like I'm getting carried away again...

Taking the sunflower indoors to paint

 I even tried a bit of leaf printing to make the texture on the leaves more interesting and real.

Are we there yet? New Sunflower painting

Sunflower Photos

Painting over other paintings

I'd done this painting years ago in response to the horrors they were reporting on the TV news. Sometimes when there's nothing I can do about events themselves I can paint and that helps me process the emotions I'm going through.

Needless to say I don't always want these paintings around with all that powerful negative energy inside so I'll often paint something positive on top of it as a filter
or a safety valve.

This one is getting a sunflower to show that good things can (and often do) grow
from tragedy and loss so you see this is much more to me than a simple floral painting. It's a shout out at the world that says "no matter what we're still growing and something good will come of it."

Too hot to paint sunflowers outdoors

 Just when things were going pretty well the weather got too hot and the wind kept knocking my easel over so I headed back into the house.

 Here's a look at the progress I made this morning.

More of todays Sunflowers

Sunflower Day

 Today I thought I'd paint out in the yard where the sunflowers are.

Progress on the sunflower paintings

Painting sunflowers

The sunflowers I'm growing this year are a different variety than last year so changes need to be made on the center. I was worried about the balance of yellow tones that I'm beginning to work in so I brought in another flower and scanned the painting to get a better idea of how it looks. Sometimes you can get too close to your work and need to back off and look at it from a different perspective.

It will help me decide what to do with it next.

The Sunflowers are back

I've only got a few sunflowers this year. 1 in the back  yard and and 8 in the front garden so I'm hoping there will be enough to work with as I try to finish the 2 sunflower paintings that I started last summer and do at least one more acrylic before I move on to pencil or ink drawings and watercolor.

latest garden pictures

Re use and recycle garden project

It doesn't look like much now but wait until next summer when the roses are trained around it and blooming. The white and pink will be welcome pops of color in this corner of the yard.

Still re working the Iris Painting

I was afraid I'd overworked this painting when I ran the wildflower leaves over the Iris so I attempted to remove them and touch up the flower petal in adobe photo shop. I'm not real familiar with the program so I've had mixed results. 

Looking at both these images together I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be easier to go back to my paints and brushes and try again from scratch. I'll let you know what I decide.

wildflowers to watercolor painting

I think the pictures speak for themselves. Leave a comment if you have any questions or would like me to explain the process further.

Garden Photos

 The sunflowers are blooming in the wildflower border

 at the edge of the front yard.

 We're excited to find that the citrus trees are so happy to spend the summer outdoors. There are lots of new leaves and blossoms on the orange and there's one good sized lemon ripening on the lemon tree. I think they'll want a plant light when they move back in the dining room for the winter.