Flowers with Book

More practice with "less is more" . . .

Rambunctious

These were the most uncooperative models! I had started
this painting with another arrangement only to find they
had completely shifted overnight. I painted the rearrangement
on top of what was already there and focused on their unruly
personalities. It was an opportunity to practice leaving stuff out.
By the time I got to the flower on the right, it felt right to mix
the grays, then use a few bright strokes and decide it was enough.

Apples and Oranges

Trying to work on getting a more subdued overall tone . . . I think I
forgot the highlights. I toned the surface with yellow ochre, then used
viridian to block in the shapes and wiped out for the lights—trying to
get away from filling in outlines.

Cluster

Very thick paint and a mindset to leave out detail and not "pretty
things up."

I love Stanley Bielen's work and visit his galleries' sites often but
have never seen this one before:

Rose/Carmine

or this:

Yellow/Red Ranunculus

Bloomin'

Flowers have become easier since I stopped worrying about whether
they can be identified as the kind of flower they are. Then I could focus
more on color, paint, texture and composition.

Colored Bottles

Practicing coloring outside the lines . . .

Rose and Bud

Flowers are complicated but they're an opportunity to learn to simplify and
think in a different way. Painting them is also slowly showing me the

elements that have been missing in most of my work.

Couple

When I woke up yesterday, I didn't feel my usual drive to paint. 

But then the alternative would have been to clean house and there 

was no drive to do that! I needed a shot in the arm and had read about 

painting on mylar so thought I'd give it a try. The surface isn't that 

different from gesso but for some reason, it gave me permission to 

focus more on the paint than the subject—experiment rather than produce. 

When I look at this, it feels like I didn't paint it. Which might be a good 

thing to clear out old preconceptions about how my paintings "should" look. 

Thinking I'll use PVA glue to mount this to a gessoed panel . . . if anyone 

has experience mounting mylar, please let me know what works best.