"Garden Sunflowers - Start to Finish...

   I decided to document this latest still life painting from beginning to end. I was trying out this newly discovered style - a much looser, "get the paint on there", kind of style. 

    For much of my artistic life, you probably could of called me a "Miss Meticulous" type of painter. I loved to spend hours on one spot and often leaned towards painting fine detail type stuff (cultural designs, mandalas). There has been a shift in me lately where I have learned to let go and just paint! I truly believe that this has been my missing link, mainly with my oil painting.

   This past workshop that I took is where I discovered this new style and ever since then, my painting style has become looser and more expressive. So, here we go...

   In the beginning I chose not to draw out my idea first, I usually would use charcoal or pencil or even a sketch with paint - this was about a three minute, throw some "thin"paint on there, rough lay in...

Here is where I began defining the colors and shapes a little more...

Started applying quick expressive brushstrokes and colors to make the flowers come alive.

It was at this point I became unhappy with the central flower and wiped it out...

And then...the painting was interrupted. I had to leave my studio even though I had planned it to be an "Alla Prima" painting. These were sunflowers that I had picked from the garden and I knew that they would loose so much of their vitality by the time I could get back to it so I took a picture of the arrangement for later (which turned out to be two days).

So when I got back to it (finally), I started on the vase and background...

With the vase, I focused heavily on just painting what I saw - shapes and colors...

Then back to the flowers...I didn't want to do too much here because of the nice brushstrokes going on and by now the paint had dried a lot. This was a tricky spot...

I was very pleased with how this turned out especially because I was outside of my comfort zone and was challenging myself a little. The only thing about the painting that's a bit of a bummer is that it's not very photogenic...I struggled with the photos for a while trying to get them to match the colors of the actual painting and basically what you are seeing here is the best I could do. Here is the final shot...with the original arrangement as well...

"Garden Sunflowers"

14" x 14" oil on gesso board framed

$450
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