Soften My Heart

  

       Soften My Heart - oil on canvas - 34" x 37"

Who doesn't love pink and turquoise? Who doesn't love pink roses from the garden placed in a clear glass vase?

Who doesn't love when the petals start cascading onto a reflective surface?

It is enough to soften any heart. 

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Reveling in Cherry Blossoms

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One of the pleasures I have as an artist is exploring color and color combinations. I was so drawn to paint these pink little puffs with a golden mustard color as the background. The violet shadow tones in the blossoms "sang" beside the yellow, pushing the pleasure of painting and viewing this piece when finished. 

 

Cherry Blossom Jubilee

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My local florist sells cherry blossom boughs in early spring. I bought one, and brought it into my studio. The branch, plopped in a bucket of water, stood patiently while I placed different color swatches behind it, "feeling" for the right match. The pink flowerets seemed to sing when I put the turquoise cloth behind them, and that, of course, was the tell. 

Painting nature indoors is a curious thing. Without the elements, I could explore the details of the leaves and bark and buds almost leisurely, and at eye level, which was very sweet. But at times, especially as it started to die, the cherry branch seemed painfully out of her element. I realize now, that it was the turquoise cloth which echoed an open, free sky that helped soften the story of this wild beauty, held captive inside the walls of my studio.                                                              

Flowers for a Finch

 Happy New Year's Eve

I was just thinking that it had been a while since I last posted here, and that maybe today was a good day to check in. Looks like I had the same thought exactly one year ago. Check out the last post if you don't believe me. What are the chances of that? ... well, 1 in 365. 

 Flowers for a Finch is a breakout piece for me, new in every way except for the flowers, of course. I will  be back at my easel on Monday and am excited to continue exploring this new direction. I am resolute in my wish to post here regularly in the New Year.  I have a sneaking suspicion that was my resolution last year, too. Oh, well.

Here's to the best year yet for all of us. 2022, we are counting on you. 

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Zinnias in Glass

By the time I finished this painting, I had probably gone through 2 different bunches of zinnias. Working from life with flowers as subject matter, means that I have to have a strategy for getting the work completed before the blooms fade. In this case, I was lucky in that zinnias have a long season, and the farm that grows them is just down the street. I began by arranging the flowers in a way that drew me in, then quickly went to work starting with the vase and the flowers that hung down around it. I worked my way up, making sure to get the key (anchoring) blooms painted in next. Those would be the large reddish orange one near the center and the yellow one to the right of it. By that time, I needed fresh flowers and added them in to the existing fading blooms, placing them as needed to create an interesting completion of the composition. The three outstretching blooms at the top are examples. I "posed" them in such a way as to create a graceful twist and sway to the arrangement. 

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