"Peony Glories" (oil on linen; 10" x 10") sold

sold

I took the reference photo for the painting at the Anne of Green Gables Museum in Prince Edward Island.  Yes, they were blooming in early July!  They were past the peak, but in my painting you can't tell that.

The first step of the transparent underpainting is finished.  

The opaque layer is down.  Now my task is to make sense of the sculptural form of the flowers.  It is not an easy job because the values are so close.  All I have to go by are the close warm/cool temperature variations.

Backlit, sun-struck flowers are beginning to emerge.

"Joy of Spring" (oil on stretched canvas; 20" x 16") sold

sold

What a winter we are having!  The Polar Vortex!  Have you seen the pictures of the frozen Chicago Lakeshore?  Burrrr.  I pulled out a picture of peonies and watermelon to warm up my soul.  We had a fantastic spring last year.  It was mild with plenty of rain to keep the flowers going for weeks beyond their season.  The reference photo for the painting was taken on the last day of May, which is very late for where I live.

It was a hot sunny day and I and my darling peonies were wilting.  Just the thought of it made me happy as I painted "Joy of Spring".  There is nothing like sinking teeth into the slice of cool watermelon on a hot day on the patio by the side of gorgeous flowers!

"Peonies in the Sun" (oil on linen, 8" x 10") sold

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I have an artist friend who is on an ongoing "peony quest".  In other words, she keeps painting peonies.  She has probably painted hundreds of peonies!  It is true that I am not as devoted to these fragrant, luscious spring flowers as she is.  Nevertheless, I feel unfulfilled if I don't create several peony paintings in a year.  How do you like my new painting?

"Pink Peony Magic" (watercolor on Yupo; 8" x 10") sold

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Backlit pink peonies against a dark night sky.  Does it make sense?  Yes, because it's magic!  Of course, part of the magic is Yupo.  All the swirly stuff in the background was created by manipulating wet paints.  How?  I held the Yupo sheet gingerly by the edges and moved the paint puddles left and right, top to bottom as well.  Very messy and nerve-wrecking.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  This time it worked!

The painting was published on the Daily Paintworks site this morning.  Someone left this comment: "Such a lush, translucent watercolor.  Strong use of this medium."  Isn't that nice?

The winner of "Moonrise over the Sea" is Elizabeth Ferguson.  Congratulations!  She is a relatively new fan and one of the most enthusiastic Facebook fans of mine.  She leaves a wonderful, positive comment on many posts.  Thank you, Elizabeth.  Artists are like movie stars.  They want to be seen and loved!

"Pink Peonies Bursting" (oil on linen; 14" x 11") sold

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All spring I wait for my pink peonies to bloom.  Actually, peonies don't bloom.  They burst!  It has been an unusually cool spring in the Mid-Atlantic region this year, so they just started blooming in my garden.  I took some pictures on Tuesday and proceeded to paint my darling peonies.  Unfortunately, the last two days were full of distractions and family duties to fulfill.  After many disruptions, I managed to finish "Pink Peonies Bursting."

Reference photo

I must say that I have never painted peonies like this.  The workshop with Gregory Packard is rubbing off on me!  The biggest compositional challenge was how to handle the table, which bisects the picture so rudely.  I rounded and lowered it.  Please tell me that I did the right thing!  I am going to paint a few more peony paintings because I just can't get enough of these flowers.

"Pink Peony Spring" (oil on stretched canvas; 10" x 10") sold

sold

"First Peony" (oil, 10" x 10")
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This spring has been such a strange one that many plants seem to be as confused as gardeners.  I have one precious peony plant, which had always given me an armful of fragrant pink flowers every spring.  Not this year.  An unseasonably warm early spring, followed by a cool mid-spring, must have wrought havoc to the poor thing.  What you see above is all the peonies I got!  It is now the hydrangea season in northern Virginia.  Hopefully, hydrangeas didn't get damaged by the funky weather.

HAVE A GREAT MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!

"Pink Tutu Peonies" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

Speaking of peonies, I have another painting of my favorite flowers.  While going through an old shoebox full of photographs (do you remember those days before the digital photography?), I found a picture of pink peonies, which became the inspiration for the aptly-titled (!) "Pink Tutu Peonies."  These fluffy, flirty, and fragrant peonies are from my garden; they always remind me of pink tutus my daughter wore in her ballet recitals as a little girl.

The previous owners of my house were enthusiastic gardeners and had done a terrific job with landscaping the property. Unfortunately, they didn't always pay attention to how much light different plants require for the optimum growth. So we have lilac bushes, a plum tree, and others languishing in shady corners. There isn't much we could do about them, but with small plants like peonies and azaleas, we could transplant them to sunny spots. The pink peony, mostly dead ten years ago, now thrives and brings us much joy every spring.

But where I live, when spring comes, it comes fast and furious. One day, it's a balmy spring; the next day, it's a sultry summer. The only way to extend the enjoyment of these lovely peonies is to paint from them fast before they fade. Sometimes, I don't have the time and, as a backup for rainy days, I take some pictures. Not the same thing, I know. It is still better than nothing with these seasonal flowers.