"Antique French Teapot with Poppies" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

sold

A glorious bouquet of poppies would have been enough. But apricots and cherries also tempt you. There is more! The antique French blue enameled teapot and coffee pot complete chromatically this sumptuous still life. 

"Oriental Poppy Mystique" (watercolor; 8" x 6") sold

sold

The painting started out with a pure white background.  Photographing it turned out to be difficult.  So, last night, I turned the white background into something else.  A dark, mysterious background brings out the incredible form, color, and texture of red oriental poppies, don't you agree?

"Red Poppy Passion" (watercolor; 5" x 7") sold

sold

I decided to paint poppies a little differently.  I glazed the flowers, stems, and pods in several layers (in the left flower below, you can see the first yellow layer), whereas the background was painted wet-in-wet.  The painting looks intense and tropical, doesn't it?  I love it!

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

The Collage of My September 2015 Paintings

Time to show off the collage of the previous month's paintings!  There you go.  Lots of watercolors!  Which painting is your favorite?  By the way, I am not yet done with the watercolor fest: more peonies, irises, and roses to explore!

"Red Poppy Love" (watercolor; 5" x 7") sold

sold

Here is the last of the red Oriental poppy triptych.  It look like this together. Fabulous, if I may say so!

sold

sold

sold

"Red Poppy Glory" (watercolor; 5" x 7") sold

sold

An old collector of mine who bought "Oriental Red Poppy" commissioned me to paint two more of these poppy paintings so that she could display them together.  What an awesome idea!  And I get to paint a mini series!  Thank you, Kierstyn.  This is the second of the series.

"Poppy and Larkspur" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

sold

The transparent underpainting for "Poppy and Larkspur"

Reference photo

I am in the grip of the yearning for romantic garden paintings and this winter won't let go. Yes, it snowed again yesterday.  I can't wait to see flowers blooming in gardens, parks, meadows, and just everywhere!  In the meanwhile I had to resort to my photo files to come up with an image that might satisfy my urge.  How about pink poppy and blue larkspur?

"Hope Poppy" (oil on linen; 4" x 5") gift

gift

I painted "Hope Poppy" as a gift to Pat MacMaster.  She found me on Facebook, fell in love with my paintings, and ordered two pet portraits.  In other words, she is a great fan.  Then she went out of her way to introduce my work to her friend, who was uncomfortable with the computer stuff.  So Pat served as a go-between, sending me Lynn's dogs' pictures, texting her, etc.  To make the long story short, I was able to paint and sell three pet portraits thanks to her.

When she first sent me the email about her friend, I was down.  Suddenly I felt the surge of optimism.  Someone loved my work so much that she spent her rare visit with her friend, talking her into ordering paintings.  I felt hope.  Yes, I can do it.  I can make a go of it as a full-time artist!

I titled the small painting "Hope Poppy."  A bright poppy is in full bloom amongst lush greens; a bud will open another day.  "Hope Poppy" is filled with light and hope.  Thank you, Pat.

"Poppy Dreams" (watercolor on Yupo; 6" x 8") sold

sold

I am continuing my Yupo painting explorations.  Everyday I work on two or three paintings.  Why?  Because paints on Yupo dry very slowly; water has to evaporate, as the synthetic support does not absorb any moisture.  While a section on a painting is drying, I work on something else on anther painting.  I go for puddly, spontaneous, watercolory look in these paintings, but they are actually painted slowly, patiently, and in stages.  How do you like "Poppy Dreams"?

By the way, I found a great quote by Claude Monet: "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."  He took words right out of my mouth!  I can paint flowers everyday for months without running out of inspiration!

"Poppy Field" (oil on linen; 5" x 7") sold

sold

Reference photo

Poppies at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA

Sometimes the subject matter is fairly easy to paint.  It is the background that causes problem.  As you can see in the reference photo, I had to be creative with the bottom part of the "poppy field," which was not exactly a field of red poppies bobbing romantically.

After several scrapes, I came up with the finished painting, which has the red-green compliment colors as the dominant color scheme.  The violets in the background were inspired by the deep violet heart of the flowers. I didn't start the painting with this color scheme in mind.  I stumbled into it!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

"Poppy Field" (oil on linen; 16" x 12") sold



After
sold

"Poppy Field" before revision

"Evening Island" (oil, 14" x 11")
sold

I have a tendency of quitting a painting too soon.  It's not because I am lazy.  It's because of the fear factor--if I continue working on this pretty darn good painting, I am going to ruin it!  Last week, in his first class of the winter term, John Murray told the students to be brave: "No one is going to die here.  We are not performing a brain surgery.  So go ahead, use big brushes and lots of paint, and knock yourself out."  Or something like that.

We got a good laugh at his encouraging comments, but they got me thinking.  I have a few paintings that are supposedly finished and framed.  Whenever I look at them, however, I am bothered.  Yesterday I decided to do something about this nagging sensation and unframed a couple of the guilty paintings.  There was nothing to lose, you see?  Just as when a painting is a knock-out, it is a knock-out; when a painting doesn't work, it doesn't work.  No judges will like them; nobody will buy them either.

"Poppy Field" was too wispy.  It looked good only when I turned on a lamp next to it.  So I turned up the chroma (color intensity) of the poppies and greens in the foreground.  For "Evening Island," I increased the value scale.  The sky along the horizon was lightened and the grassy foreground was deepened.  I also added texture with a rough bristle brush, dipping it into pure paints and mixing colors directly on the painting.

I am happy to report that no one died in the process and I just rescued two paintings from the ignominy of mediocrity.  Not a bad reward for courage!