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

The Painting Speaks

I'm continuing my efforts to "dash off"

oil sketches as test tiles but sometimes the subject

matter speaks and demands more attention.

It's really a joy to become so engrossed

in the execution that time does not register at all.

Such was the case...

A fresh 12 x 9 canvas and a photo reference with a new intention: emphasize the basket of flowers, leaving the rest vague.

My first sketch had too much chair so I tried drawing out the basket and then adding the chair...a quick warm up to the warm up!

I did a rough layout in oil just trying to get the main outlines on the canvas.

I went a little bit further and set it aside to dry.

The next day I really got involved in the floral arrangement, even while trying not to get too detailed.

So the three pink cone flowers became my center of interest and the rest was left in a sketchy mode.

I really like this but I think the basket could get even bigger some day?!  

The neat thing about this scene is that I really did gather those flowers at a friend's farm.  I set them down to run inside and when I came back it looked like the perfect still life.  I snapped a few photos to paint later.

This is actually the second time I have executed this photo.  The first had a lot more background and it sold to a young mother who had seen it and returned to secure it for above her writing desk...she was setting the scene for her personal pursuit of creative writing.  

While I had meant to stop once I got the composition laid out, I just could not leave it.  The basket called to be fleshed out and the cone flower begged for center stage.  How could I resist? 

I wonder where this rendering might find a new home?

COLOR FULLY YOURS,

Cindy
p.s.  Not long after I wrote this blog the painting found a new home... also under the roof of a writer!
I really enjoy knowing where my work goes, it's comforting to know why the buyer fell in love and that it was (and will be) a viewing "experience."

Paint Flowers While the Sun Don't Shine

It's been a WET spring...

I try not to complain; but a long dark day in the studio 

when the calendar says SPRING....

well, sometimes a gal has to 

take things into her own hands.

So I decided to create my own spring...albeit fantasy and not at all accurate!  It would be colorful and fun.  Any time I confuse fun with easy I am taken aback and this was no exception.  I spent more time taking things out of this free form composition than I did putting them in.  But it felt cheerful to work with these colors (under artificial lights) while waiting for the torrents of water to cease.

Here is the assignment: create a bright, whimsical floral piece to close the gap between the lights above this "work in progress" bedroom.  

Here is the answer:

"Field of Dreams" acrylic, 24 x 36

I think it is asking for a broad gray/white frame or to be mounted on a larger white board?

It will accomplish the task of brightening and cheering up the space.  But easy? Oh my no.  First off I got way too many flowers on the piece and it was a jumbled mess.  As I culled the bunch I discovered I was leaving texture on the board that was not repeated elsewhere.

So of course I start adding some "fake" texture to even it all out.  Then I painted a silver fence in trying to give it more...more I don't know what.  So that had to come out.  And just as I was ready to cry 'uncle' I noticed that my stems and flowers now did not match up.  Just the thing to keep one busy while it rains outside.

I even worked on it upside down to figure out where all this was going to go.

close up

But all is said and done and I am ready to hang it.  No, whimsy is not really my playground but every now and again I have to stick my whole self in just so I remember that nothing is as easy as it looks.

Off to the framers.

WHIMSICALLY YOURS,

Cindy

More Flower Power

Sometimes I get on a jag...

better known as "painting a series," where a 

particular subject becomes of great interest

and I just can't seem to get enough.

I'm going to blame it on spring.  After months of grey skies and noble, naked trees we were suddenly treated to bits of color here and there.  A lone bloom became reason to pause and enjoy the sensation. I think that is what started my interest in painting flowers...and, much to my surprise, I am still enjoying them.  

A weekend in Charleston provide some photos of the quintessential southern bloom: the Magnolia.

I painted it twice, two different sizes and both were detailed studies of form and color.

Southern Comfort

oil, 16 x 12, gold floater frame, $250

Sweet Tea

oil, 7 x 5, gold frame, $185

Needing some flowers a bit less constrained, I opted next to paint a "mess of daisies" I found out in the woods.  They looked, and felt, every bit as southern as the magnolias but certainly not as proper or well heeled.  Two sides of spring: dignified and wild.  

On the Wild Side

oil, 7 x 5 painting, frame measures 13 x 11

$150

I don't think I am done with flowers...one of the many benefits of painting a subject consistently is that you begin to pick up on the small nuances of the subject matter.  In this case there is much to learn about stems and positions (like necks holding up heads), growth patterns, leaf patterns (and making the right leaf believable to the correct plant) and oh, about a thousand other small details that add up to the big picture.

I was advised once not to paint anything I am not intimately familiar with...or someone will call me out on a misplaced detail.  So while the sun is giving us long days and cool evenings I am out to get up close and personal with a lot more flowers.  Here's hoping you find blossoms in your day.

Blooming in Living Color,

Cindy

Flower Power

Spring has done funny things to me.

Like now I am painting flowers.  Yep, flowers!

Something I have rarely painted before...never

say never I guess.  You never know, so I guess you do.

I have hundreds of flower photos.  At times I think I want to learn botanical illustration and I get all ready and...nothing.  I have clipped bouquets and brought them to the studio to paint only to find 100 other things that suddenly need doing.  Was I avoiding the subject?  Let me tell you, they are not easy.  So no time like the present to tackle a tough subject.

I cut myself a lovely stash of rhododendron stems and placed them in water in the studio.  I've learned that if I deem a piece "not precious," i.e. "practice," it takes the pressure off, enabling me to play a bit without a fear of wasting expensive materials.  So I grabbed a couple paintings I did not like and decided to paint over them.

Both of these were done from the live bouquet, not a photo.  I experienced all of the challenges that a live model brings: shifting perspective, lighting changes, movement etc.  This model did not need 15 minute breaks to stretch but I assure you, the painter did!

The major problem the model gave was that after several days (I was working so slowly) the flowers began to bloom and get fuller and more beautiful. Even the colors began morphing. Ahhhh, the pain.  But remember: it didn't matter so I played and played, my buds, most of them, blooming along with the model.

Here they are.  Two very different versions of the same gathering.  Two different backgrounds and looks.  Two slightly different sizes.  Do you have a preference?  Let me know because just as I had decided to frame one ($) and not the other (dumpster time) someone came in and oohed and ahhhed over the one I had rejected.  Oops.

So do tell.  And never say never.  Hint: more flowers are on the easel even as I type!

BLOOMING IN COLOR,

Cindy

Dizzy Dancing Way You Feel

Have you ever listened to music and had

a line just jump out?  Often I am in the car and think

to myself "what would that lyric look like painted?"

I rarely go further as I can't make a note

while driving but every now and then...

Does the Title Affect Your Viewing?

Titles for paintings are funny things.  To some artists they are merely a locale, to others they become a marketing gimmick; sometimes one struggles for a title and once in a while the piece instantly names itself.  Purchasing a piece, I once asked the artist where it was. "Oh," he answered, "that was from Siena, Italy."  I paused writing the check and looked up. "Shoot, it reminded me of a place my husband and I stayed in Provence, France," I replied.  He grinned, "yes, that is just what I meant to say!"  We both laughed, I finished the purchase and simply re-christianed the piece.  All the same...

What does a title mean to you?

I am serious.  My husband and I go round and round (I won't say out loud that he likes trite references which he thinks are literary....oh, did I say trite??) and I wax and wane between what I feel and what I see.  Frankly I have rarely bought something for which the title was a critical component, yet I usually ask.    The selection is often a point of reference or at least starts a conversation with the maker.

Which brings me to the piece I share today.

We stopped by an amazing "You-Pic-Em" flower farm in Oregon which also had a winery and a gourmet food truck.  It was a spontaneous stop on a long but spectacular drive and with one eye on the dark clouds rolling in we stood in awe of the acres of flowers ready to be picked.  Wine, lunch, flowers...a few photos and we happily resumed our drive.

Can one ever re-capture that experience?  I think not.  The dark, mountainous backdrop and the swaths of floral color are perhaps better rendered in the abstract of masses.  But on another rainy day in the studio I can play and remember.  So I did.  And then to title, humming...I will borrow, with respect for Joni Mitchell's endless talent,  a line that is laden with meaning...for me.

"The Dizzy, Dancing Way You Feel"

24 x 18, oil

available

How do you feel about titles?  Do they influence your view of the art?  Or do you prefer a numbering system? I am really curious, so please share.

Dancing in Color,

Cindy

The Gathering

Sometimes a moment just begs to be painted.

The minute you see the scene it is as if

it was put there just for the artists' eye, to be

captured and preserved forever in paint.

Such was the history behind this painting, "The Gathering."  I spent the morning at a friend's farm and after we gathered flowers I laid my basket down to run in and fetch something.  When I returned I paused, slowly I took in the scene before me: the garden in the distance, the old milk can, the peeling chair and my freshly cut flowers.  I savored it.  The smells, the sounds, the colors are with me to this day.  But before I moved on I reached in my back pocket and took a photo.  

Days later I remembered the photo and printed it out to see if I might be able to paint from it.  I really wanted to preserve that rustic yet fresh atmosphere and I knew I had a challenge before me.

I began with a gold and a gold/green wash on the white canvas and then lightly sketched out the chair using a piece of white chalk.  When I was fairly certain of my most important lines I used a brush and a liquidy-wash of burnt sienna to draw in my guide.

Then the painting fun began.  Apparently I was so engrossed I forgot to take photos.  I do remember telling my self to "slow down, slow down, slooooow down."  I wanted to leave some "raw-ness" to the rendering and I know my tendency to get bogged down in painting the details which, I think, tightens up the overall feel.

Paint, sit and look.  Walk around.  Paint.  Back off.  Mull.  Go away.  Come back.  Study.  Paint.

I am learning (or trying to learn) to think at least twice as long as paint.  Easier said than done.

The Gathering, oil, 24 x 20

(waiting for its frame)

available

So here is the result.  The flowers eventually found a vase and then died but the wonderful morning is still with me as I remember the air, the smells, the colors...and how the still life magically appeared and asked me to paint it.

Color Fully Yours,

Cindy  

Waaay Under-Valued: the Dandelion

Did you know that the humble dandelion is responsible for most

of the pollution of our rivers and streams?

AND that is also one of the most nutritious plants on 

our planet? 

Well, neither did I.

So I took a foraging class recently and was literally blown away, inspired, amazed and educated.  But I can only learn so much at a time so I decided to focus first on the common dandelion, taraxacum officinale, in the asteraceae family.  Like I will ever remember that?  Yeah, but what I can remember is that dente-de-lion refers to the tooth edged leaves, lion teeth, get it?  Helps make a positive id.

About that pollution: millions of dollars are spent every year by Americans trying to rid their yards of the lovely little yellow flowers with the only result being that the poisons run off lawns and ruin our waterways....while the sturdy little weed returns again and again.

The nutrition is exceptional: the greens contain high levels of vitamin A, calcium and potassium. The teacher remarked that if word gets out how good these are for us we will probably never seen another one as they will be harvested, packaged and sold for really big bucks.

You can tell the dente de lion won me over.  So I made tea, put greens in a salad and researched dandelion wine recipes, oh and I painted them to further burn the identification into my memory.

I wanted a fun background so I started with some acrylics

until I liked what was happening

a detail, I loved finding a plant that had all 3 stages

of the flower on it....yes, I did blow and make a wish

A Dandy Deal, oil, 8 x 6, $45.00

on cradled board, no frame needed

There is a lot of information I would suggest you read as you head out to the yard with your harvest basket, one source is here.  And another, just for starters, is here.

Did I mention they are low in calories?  Did I remind you that making Dandelion Wine is one of the great rites of spring?  Need I say more?  I may get around to a series of these wonder plants but just in case I don't and you want to buy this one, (it, like the plant, is so under value!) you may contact me here.

Going GREEN,

Cindy

Happy New Year Flowers

Guess I'm the odd woman-out: I've always

loved birthdays: the start of a new year,

the fact that I'm alive and usually well, and the chance

to celebrate in any way I choose....

Which, this year was going to be a quiet drink (or two) with two buddies nestled on the deck while listening to birds and watching the sun set over the mountains.  Lovely...could it get any better?

Well, it did.  A "long time-no see" friend wandered up the steps and joined us bringing more laughs and more wine.  And then another...and another...and...suddenly I realized the gang of friends had grown, quietly and calmly and the deck was filled with love and laughter.  But wait!  There's more.

Unbeknownst to me they had all brought mason jars filled with flowers from their gardens, the fields, the neighbors yard....all picked with care and offered up to me as a living color tribute to our friendship and the new year I was embarking upon.  Yes, my heart swelled.

I enjoyed the gifts as only an artist can: painted them all and then rearranged them and painted them again...

working bliss in the studio

A Birthday Bouquet

'' 14 x  11'', oil, framed

(there is an asparagus as well as rosemary in this bouquet) 

Love in a Jar

" 8 x 6", oil, framed
(note the flaming azaleas and the mountain laurel)

still more flowers so I made a new arrangement

(note the lupine curving on the right, one of my new favs,

look closely and you will also see mint, garlic

and assorted blooms)

Wild Flowers Boxed

12" x 24", oil, currently unframed

And I learned something while painting.  My heart was totally in this, no angst over details because the results were purely for my pleasure and the joy of preserving these lovely gifts. Well, I think they turned out rather nicely, don't you?  Details be damned, the process won out!

Color Fully Yours,

Cindy

Creative Yard Art

Sometimes the funnest things are activities you never really set out to do!  Such was the case when I spontaneously agreed to teach a workshop in making glass flowers from plates.  I had been doing them for local shops and had so many questions that we decided to share the fun via a class.

me playing teacher,

looks like an infomercial, no?

 

My sweet friend Cheri offered her home, information was circulated and voila! we had ourselves a date.  Ten brave students gathered, some confessing that creative sports were not in their wheelhouse.  I guaranteed fun for all.  I get a little enthusiastic in my thrift shop endeavors and forget that not everyone is as familiar with the jewels to be found as I am.  Nevermind, I loaded up on enough to supplement anything that anyone brought in and handed out little bags of adhesive and "fixings." We even set up a "trade" area for extra materials.

 

Marsha and Yvonne listening intently

 

The wonderful thing about this kind of craft is that we can play with all kinds of color combos and shape mixes before ever committing to putting them together.  So play we did!  Lots of ideas were shared, opinions offered and encouragement given.  Whew, once the adhesive was in place it was time to let the art "set" and take a break for lunch.

 

lunch with the ladies is always educational

 

The results were wonderful!  Not a failed project among them...I truely got some renewed inspiration from watching the way these ladies worked...Lots of lucky folks will be getting original yard art for Christmas this year.  I know I'm not finished yet!!

Take a peek here at just some of the lovely pieces created:







So imagine these peeking out of your greenery in the garden...

Hope you can join us next time!

Attention to Detail

The iris fascinates me...it is one of the most elegant flowers and has such dignity and grace.  If I could grow these little bulbs (and believe me I planted a number of them) I think I would consider myself a real gardner.

The next best thing is being able to paint them...I got a little carried away with trying to choose a purple/violet for these so I went wild and splashed it all on.  The bulbs package called these  "hollandica blue" but they are really very deep purple with a harsh yellow tongue (purple and yellow are complimentary color which means they should vibrate beside one another and make a brown or gray when mixed together).  Anyway, this is my effort at gardening on the easel: take lots of color and finish with a pencil!

The size is 8" x 6" and it is on a cradled board so the sides are painted yellow and inscribed with planting instructions.  I've also posted a photo of a detail shot...the real fun in doing one of these. 

If you need to send Mom flowers for Mother's Day and want some that will last forever, well, these are available!  Purchase here...Ooops: just SOLD!