Sharing Secrets

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

This is the last of my little daisy paintings. I've learned a lot that I can apply to the larger ones I will be doing. Mostly I've learned that what can look good to my eye does not always translate to paint. Not that I didn't already know this ... it just got reiterated to me. But that's life, right? We learn the same lessons over and over and over.

I also wanted to mention that, while I normally paint still lifes from life, I did these from photos. In the past I've used my DSLR camera, but this time I used my phone (Samsung Galaxy 10 - really good camera). I set the size to 1:1 (square) because I knew I wanted to paint square paintings. This REALLY helped me to compose, as opposed to using whatever aspect ratio my camera is normally set to, because I could get it looking good to my eye right from the beginning. Now that I'm thinking about it, I can probably set my DSLR camera to square as well ... not sure why I didn't think of that.

Waiting for the Cue

 

Click Here to BUY (12x12in. - OIL - $500)

This reminds me of those little kid performances where they're all waiting backstage, and one is peeking around to see if her parents showed up. By the way she also has the solo.

Leaning Flower Towers

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

These little glass containers were not actually leaning. But somehow when I got all done with the painting and put it on my drying shelves - I looked again and they were. And then the title popped into my head. And I liked it so much I decided it wasn't worth fixing the painting because the title was too perfect. Right?!

Over the Top

 

Click Here to Bid (6x12in. - OIL - starts at $150 - click image to enlarge)

Here's a slightly bigger one that combines both the apples and flowers that I've been working on lately. I made the little vase with the knobbies on it, years ago. Starting next week I'll be taking another pottery class and hope to produce something else I can use in my still lifes. We'll see.

Daisy Trio

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

Mostly I paint still lifes from life, but these little daisy paintings have been from photos. The reason is that I intend to eventually paint larger versions, and I just find it's easier (and less pressure) to have a photo to work from in this case. Flowers can change from day to day (and sometimes minute to minute), and often big paintings take more than a day to finish. Also I took a whole bunch of pictures that will last forever, but the flowers are already done for.

Protective

 

Click Here to Bid (6x6in. - OIL - starts at $100)

I posted the reference photo for this at the beginning of the month/year. It was for this month's Daily Paintworks Challenge, all about resolutions. One of my personal resolutions is to paint more flowers on larger panels, but the past few days I've been doing a few little paintings as a warm up (and to try and get myself out of a funk I've been going through). It worked! And this is one of the little ones I did.

I have a bunch more references of these flowers that I'm going to play with. One thing I realized is that I was intimidated by going large, so these little studies are a GREAT way to get warmed up, try some ideas for editing, and just see what works and what doesn't. So expect more, and eventually, larger versions.