Plein air rain out success

Sometimes a painting chooses itself. A few fresh cut carnations sat in the studio for several weeks. After removing some spent stems & replacing the vase I realized there was a composition in front of me, similar to the April calendar picture [a few posts below]. The next day's plan to paint plein air was rained out so I was able to spend the day sketching & structuring the canvas; the foreground was nearly complete in a full day's studio work. Waiting until night to capture the reflections & complete the layout, I was able to mull over the differences in the two pictures, besides the obvious ones of shape & surface. The Primula was painted when the sun was down by 6, I had to wait for dark until after 9 to work on this one. Both flowers sat on my work table for a long time before they 'spoke' to me. It all goes back to 'paint what you know'.

Considering the daylight background, I could have used the leaf greens of outdoors for a very different painting, and someday I will. The most fun with this picture-the challenge to paint the glass vase & the black stones I use for stability.

Carnation Reflections, 24x12 oil, 2008

White still life

Now that I rediscovered painting indoors, I prepared several larger canvases with gesso & sandpaper, and laid them around the studio to dry for the second coat. When I returned to my easel, the snow outdoors and the white gesso paintings indoors created an interesting study in white. I was distracted by the beauty of the day & didn't put on a toned underpainting. The next artwork may have to be pastel.

ay yai yi yi yi

A step by step of a new rose-pink, on the green background. Several people have asked why I choose to paint on top of colors. Why not? Working on a middle value color gives me control over lights & darks. Sometimes it is completely covered over with paint, but I know it is there-other times, I let the background colors show through. This painting has been evolving for more than two weeks. The colors in the room change daily as I experiment with various lights. With the window open in the summer, light attracts bugs through the screen- so I am trying to face the light away from the woods and all its flying night creatures. They are fine stuck in the paint-but I jump when I get hit in the face when I am concentrating and wind up with wet paintbrushes hurling themselves through the air to land wherever they cause the most damage.
I do my best work at night. I paint a whole canvas at the same time when I am outside, but this is a studio piece from my photo, it is filling itself up from the bottom. The real rose was originally in a bouquet from Charles.

Spinning my brains as I deal with deadlines and paint. 5 new pictures to post, but I would rather work in the art room.