Flowers in a Cup 5"x7"

Available on "Fresh Paint Daily Painters"

Oil on hardboard panel
"Memories of Summer"
These little flowers are from my yard. I put them in a dixie cup together, and I noticed right away how pretty that little red flower looked next to the yellow one.

"Summer Hydrangeas" 8"x10"

Oil on 8"x10" Stretched Canvas
I am very happy with how this came out!!! Yay!!

More Hydrangeas... work in progress...

I'm glad I ran out of small panels the other day.. I have been using some larger ones I have around. This is an 8"x10" stretched canvas, and I am painting my hydrangeas again along with some daisies and other flowers that were in a bouquet I received for my birthday. I got brave and put them in a cut glass vase!!! I don't quite know how to handle that, but we'll see when the time comes to paint it. I thought I would post some work in progress images. I really love this stage of a painting. They always seem to have so much promise in the beginning. I'm taking this one slow, I don't want to get carried away and put in too many details.

"Summer Bouquet"

Oil on 5"x7" hardboard
These are some of the flowers blooming in my yard right now, roses, bachelor buttons, and daisies. I wish I was better at painting flowers. It took me days and a few roses, and quite a few tries to get that rose to look the way I wanted it to.

"The Pink Flower that starts with "A"...

Oil on 8"x10" Canvas Panel
These pink flowers came as part of a larger bouquet. I always see these flowers in bouquets and never remember their name, other than - it starts with an "a". So, I made a point of looking it up, and they are called "Alstroemeria" (no wonder I can't ever remember it).
You can read about them here if you like.
This painting was difficult to take a picture of, because as the lighting changed, the reds and pinks seem to appear cooler or warmer. In warm indoor light or sunlight, the pinks seem more of a coral color, and outdoors in cooler light, or cool light from a window, the pinks and reds seem more magenta. After taking many pictures of it, the image I'm posting is the one I feel represents it the best. (at least on my monitor it does, there are always subtle differences on each monitor.)
and btw, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

"Pair of Poppies" (Finish)

Oil on 11"x14" Canvas
I'm really proud of how this painting came out. This is a larger painting than usual, and is painted on a Winsor & Newton stretched canvas.

"Pair of Poppies" Oil on Canvas, 11"x14"

(in progress)

These oriental poppies were from my garden, I took a picture of them back in June. I found out a long time ago, poppies don't do well cut and put in a vase, they droop after only a few minutes. But, they look so gorgeous and big when they are put in a vase, away from the usual garden setting. I wanted to make a larger painting of them. Here are some photos of my progress. I'll finish it up tomorrow.

Impatiens 5x7

Oil on Ampersand hardbord
More impatiens, I used a shot glass as a vase for them this time.

Daisy and Impatiens 6x6

Oil on Ampersand Gessobord, 6"x6"
These little impatien flowers are such bright vivid colors it was hard to match them, but I tried. I just couldn't seem to find a paint color that would compare with those brilliant fushia/magenta petals. Also, I found this composition very interesting. The box sitting up behind the flowers seems to cause me to think I'm looking at a more rectangular painting instead of a square one.

"Peony Bud" 6"x6"

Oil on gessobord.
I have white peonies in my garden that I have been wanting to paint. I have vases full of them in the house, but I just couldn't seem to do a good painting of them. Until one day, I thought I'd try to just do one bud, and I was happy with the result. Maybe one of these days I'll figure out how to do the whole vase full of open flowers. Too bad peonies don't last long. They seem to open all at once, and after a couple of weeks, they're all gone.

Asters and Iris (finish)

Oil on 8"x10" Canvas Panel
When I started this painting, I had my usual few colors out that I like to work with, but I just couldn't get the bright pink/red color of those asters right with the alizarin crimson, or cad. red. I tried some winsor red, then some rarely used tubes of perylene red, scarlet lake, and magenta. They were still too warm of a red, and the magenta wasn't helping. Then I remembered a small, 1/2 used tube of permanent rose that I had bought years ago, and every so often I still see it in the bottom of a shoe box that contains some tubes of paint that I lost interest in, or just don't like for some reason. I pulled that out and tried it, and it was perfect! I also started using it instead of the other reds in my mixtures and I have to say, I don't know why I ever stopped using it????? All of a sudden it's my new favorite color, I'll have to go out and buy a new tube!!!

Asters and Iris (in progress)

These pretty dark pink flowers came in a mother's day bouquet, I think they are some sort of aster, and I added the iris from my garden. The live bouquet looks a bit tired in this photo, probably because it's a few days old, and the original iris wilted and a new bud bloomed, but it's still good enough to paint by. I took some reference photos just in case.
I'm painting on an 8"x10" canvas panel, it seems so much roomier than the usual 5"x7" that I've gotten used to. I like the little bit larger size and want to try to do more of them from time to time.

"Spring Reds" Oil on 5"x7" panel

I love how all the reds in the tulip and strawberries look together, and the red reflecting into the shadows. This is painted in oil on an Ampersand Gessobord.

Violas and Violets, Better Image

I spent some time exploring photoshop, and experimenting with all the color adjustments. I finally found a way to change one color at a time in the image. Yay! I only wanted to tone down the blues, and maybe warm up the background color a bit. It seemed as though each time I tried to do that, the whole image was affected. I learn a bit more everytime I use it, maybe one of these days it'll get easier to adjust my pictures when they need it. This new image is closer to the original painting. (at least on my monitor it is, I'm sure it won't have quite the same appearance on each individual monitor.)

"Violas and Violets" 5"x7" Gessobord

I wanted to try these flowers again, on a lighter background. The blue in the violets (flowers) kept photographing so bright, I don't know why, but here is the photo anyway. The rest of it seems fine. I'll see if I can't get a better image with a more accurate blue/violet color.

"Spring Bouquet" Oil on 5"x7" Canvas Panel

A Spring bouquet of violas and violets. They are such cheerful little flowers. I am thinking I might like to do another painting of them.

Spring Bouquet (in progress)

Oil on 5"x7" canvas panel
This is a little bouquet of violas and violets. They come up every year in my yard. The violas are especially interesting, with all their many different color combinations. I finished this painting late today, and didn't have time to take a picture of it. I'll have to wait til tomorrow.

Green Grapes with Yellow Flowers

Oil on 6"x8" Canvas Panel

Lily , Oil on 5x5 panel

This pink lily was part of a Valentine's Day bouquet. I think they're called Stargazer lilies? It's such a big beautiful bloom, I wondered if it would look ok painted on such a small panel. I also kept putting it off because I don't have much experience painting flowers, and I didn't want to be disappointed if I failed at it. But, I was pleasantly surprised. I'm happy with how it came out. It's such a nice colorful cheerful painting to have done on a blustery snowy freezing day. I am looking forward to Spring!!
A side note to anyone wanting to bid on this painting, I signed this painting with my initials after I took the picture, so it doesn't appear in this image.

zinnia

"White Zinnia with Cherries"

Oil on 8"x6" Canvas Panel