Cone Flower Truth or Dare

Sometimes artists will paint from the same reference

photo over and over again.  Perhaps a few know

they have a winner for sale but others, like me,

want to see just how differently they

can render it each time.

And so it goes with these pinky-purple cone flowers...something I find very difficult to render.  I'm still deciding if the outcome of the latest was a win or a loss but I can say honestly that I took the dare not to stick totally to the truth!

This is a basic rendering of the lights and darks and I tried to make a few notes as to where my blossoms were to end up.  I think I was using up the tail end of a day's left over paint so I knew I had a long way to go from here.

A little more definition of a rock and a much better flow of color in the background.

Now this is when I am so tempted to quit: drab, drab, drab.  I like the little yellow-green leaf near the bottom right hand corner....that's all.  But "tests" should be pushed until they are beyond salvage and the optimist in me thought I could maybe, just maybe keep on.

Here is a detail of one flower...not too much to brag about but definitely an improvement from above.

Cone Flowers, 12 x 16, oil

Done.  At least done for me.  Agony in the home stretch and almost wish I had quit sooner and used my time elsewhere.  But that's not the point, is it?  

Here's a bonus note: take some time, zoom in and find some small spots you do like in this painting: a certain petal, a color contrast, a splash of texture....just look carefully and state a couple of things that you like.  There.  You have just widened your ability in appreciating art...a very useful technique at a gallery or a museum.  You don't have to like it en toto....but try to find something that intrigues you and you will begin to define your own taste.  

TAKING THE DARE,

Cindy

That Easy, Peaceful Feeling

Some scenes you never tire of.  Such is the

path in the reference photo I used below.  I have painted

it numerous times.  I have had several students

take it on.  It's never the same and the story always

unfolds slightly differently.

I think I took the photo on a hike out west but I wouldn't swear to it.  It's one of those personal yet generic photos of a path in the mountains.  It offers foreground, middle ground, background and sky.  There's a rhythm to the path and it's my go-to when I need to visit a familiar place while painting.

I started this in oil using a lot of medium to build up some texture.  You can easily see the wide brush strokes left from the first layer of paint.

I enjoy starting several pieces at a time so that I don't overwork them and have something to do while the first ones dry.

I refined my colors a bit using the texture of the first layer and adding more where I could.  

And slowly I tightened things up, softened some edges and planted the flowers.  By this stage I was meandering slowly down the path thinking it might take a downward slant just around the bend.  I was looking forward to seeing if the flowers would blanket a meadow below or if more rocks might show up so I could sit on them and breath a bit.  Sometimes painting is a bit like watching the travel channel, you can visit wherever you wish without leaving home.  Doesn't that mountain air smell good?

"That Easy, Peaceful Feeling"

oil, 12 x 16, unframed

on canvas

Hiking the Easy Way,

Cindy