Poppies at Waters Edge

11x14" on watercolor paper primed with colorfix

     A new painting for this week.  I decided to do another flower painting, but cut the sky out of it completely.  I had to really think about the background so that it would not compete with the greens of the flowers in front and show distance.  The watercolor paper again gave this a really bumpy look to it.

Flowers in motion

16x12" Pastel on Colorfix paper

    I have finally finished this painting that I started last week. Similar to the last few that I have posted. This one has a different look to it as the support paper is a rough bumpy watercolor paper that was primed with colorfix pastel primer. I had to do a few underpaintings. One with watercolor, and then another with a harder pastel and sprayed with alcohol and left to dry. The bumps made it so I had to underpaint, as the dry pastel would skim over the tops of the bumps and leave a larger amount of background paper than I wished to show.

This one has a darker feel to it, because of the amount of greens in it and less sky.

Blowing in the Wind

Blowing in the Wind

9x12" Pastels on Canson

Something different this week. I decided in honor of spring, I would paint some flowers. This is from a reference photo, as they bloom later in the summer.

Sunflower  

9x12" Pastel on Canson

      Both of these were painted while I was helping out a friend at his laundry mat on Thursday and Friday.   I'm getting a little more comfortable with people watching while I'm painting, which is why I bring along my setup.  It's still weird though.  The painting I did a week ago ended up in the trash bin when I got home...it was that bad.
thanks for looking!

Sunflowers Abstract Plein Aire

Another Plein Aire from last week. 11x14" on matboard with colorfix primer.
The sunflowers are in a fenched in areia in our backyard, behind them is our chicken coop to which i orginally had in this but it had too many line horizontally so i mushed it out. Needed something to let the flowers come forward so i just blocked them in....so an abstract quality to it. 1 hour.

stella dora daylillies plein aire

I'm back! I have been busy this summer with camping and the kids. I got a plein aire setup a versa easy-L. I have been worried about starting out with plein aire...so my first step was this little 5x7 from my garden. My kids saw me all set up in the sun and had to laugh as i had a beach umbrella and a floppy sunhat on...trying to look all artisty in front of my new setup. :)

Coneflowers WIP

Worked on the coneflowers again this morning I'm happier today with it. I softened up the background leaves to show some distance in the background. I also livened up the closest flower to have a focal point. I will put it aside for a bit and see if anything else is needed.

Coneflower WIP

This is where I'm at for today, my heads hurting!

Coneflowers WIP

here is the new painting for today...this is part watercolor underpainting with outlines blocking in shapes with pastel.
13x10

Sunflowers finished

11x15" assort. pastel rembrandt, ludwig, unison

Here it is I think finished, I will put it on the wall for a few days to look at it. I added some more shadow to the right sunflower and added some darks into the spikie things can't remember the names....and pulled some color to the edges to give it alittle bit more of a finished look. I think my flowers are getting better, this came together quite quickly once I sat down to do it. About 2 hours with another 1/2 to touch up today.
As with most of the recent paintings in this blog, this will be available on my website for purchase if your interested.

Sunflower WIP

Here is about 3/4 the way through...got on a roll and forgot to take pictures. Little details need to be fixed edges lined up, but looking much better than the underpainting thank god!

Poppies in the field

This is my answer to the flowers in the wind painting from last week. I was hoping to incooperate some background to a closeup of flowers. 8x10 pastel

Daisys in the field

Another flower in grass painting, I'm on a roll! 10.5x13.5 pastel

flowers in the wind

After getting inspiration from Adriana Meiss' flowers, I thought I would get wild with a field of them. Flowers are coming along easier as I practice painting them. This is the 3rd one I have done if you don't count the little bitty ones on "the field of green" I did last. I used my light blue tint panpastel on the sky after I did my intial wet underpainting. I'm still unsure of them.

This is a great photo from the ref lib on wetcanvas. It's a 10.5x13.5, but not sure if I should crop it.

Zinnias in a Vase

Finished i think, i like the blue/green background with hints of purple showing through.
8x10" Pastel

Zinnias in a Vase WIP

Here is my 2nd stage pulling colors that are local. I see that I need to fix up the base of the vase. I'm liking it at this stage.

Zinnias in a vase WIP

Went for Flowers this time...I have never felt comfortable with them before. But it is a beautiful setup. This is my underpainting.
8x10" wet pastel underpainting on colorfix primer.