"Red Poppies" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

sold

"Red Poppies" blocked in

As I said in the entry on "Purple Irises," I am an alla prima painter, finishing a painting in one session, whether it takes one hour or a whole day.  The idea is that as long as the paints remain wet, you can manipulate the edges--hard edges for emphasis and soft ones to recede.  There are, of course, exceptions to my usual approach.  Sometimes I run out of time and can't finish a painting on the day when I started it. 

Or, like with "Red Poppies," I decide to let the first block-in stage dry.  The green seed heads are in front of the red petals, and you know one of the color principles: you mix two complimentary colors, then you end up with mud.  Greens and reds are such a complimentary pair, occurring in nature often and making it all the prettier.  The point of poppies is their brilliant reds--cadminus red, permanent rose, and alizarin crimson, etc.  Your heart rate goes up happily, exhilaratingly.  So adding green paints on top of fresh, juicy red paitnts would have been simply asking for trouble. 

As impatient as I am, I wisely let the flowers dry for two days, which meant that the soft greens and violets of the surrounding meadow also dried out unfortunately.  Dry brushing came in handy to paint in delicate stems suggestively and poetically.  I am quite pleased with how the painting turned out.