I finally made up my mind which flowers I was going to buy to do the next painting from. I bought these from the dollar store. They look surprisingly good, considering how inexpensive they were. I’m doing this so that I don’t frighten anyone who comes to look at the house when we list it. The vase is one my mother gave me years ago.
A book of flower paintings my friend Deb gave me.
‘orchestra with blast tuba’ painting, and ‘bouquet of flowers’ set up in my studio, for the next painting.
A closer look. I like the colours and the shadows. I also like anything with a black background.
I’m doing the perimeter of the painting, so I can see what the flowers look like against the black background. So far, so good. The gesso has a little grey tint to it, so I can see the white petals when I paint them.
The upper right-hand side. A closer look at the flowers. I like a bright, high-contrast image.
The photograph I’m working from, printed on 4 sheets of paper, then taped together. I need to see what I’m doing.
Up late, trying to do as much as possible.
A closer look. It looks pretty good for only one layer of paint. At this stage I’m just trying to figure out which colours go where. I’ll add more details with the next layer. This is kind of the map. Also, painting white flower petals on a grey background is very satisfying for some reason. If you paint white paint on a white canvas, it looks the same.
All of the flowers and the vase with the first layer of paint on them. I like it more than I thought I would.
I painted the black draped silk background, layer one. Now I can go back to the beginning, and paint the second layer. I do like it a lot.
Most of layer 2 done. I still have to do the background.
Self-portrait with flower and hat.
I took a photo I liked, but it was blurred, so I got my husband to take it again. Could make a good painting. I was thinking about the 1971 Long John Baldry album cover when I did this.