Poetic Background

 Flowers Add that Special Something

Sunflower Rhapsody

Wow, I love flowers! I walked into art group last Friday and there were two huge beautiful sunflower bouquets set up behind the model chair. Kudos to my friend “M” who did the set up, it was amazing!  She had the flowers set up above and behind the models chair--which was covered in a moss green cloth. The set alone would have led to a lovely still life painting!

I enjoyed painting loosely and wildly adding dashes of floral colors, not defining or spending too much time on the flowers or background. The yellows and oranges really stood out, just yummy! 

I loved the yellow orange patter from the flowers on the left to the orange shawl and then over to the flowers on the right, in a “V” pattern (red line).  I also like the upside down “V” (green line) created by the left hand to the chin to the right hand. (See lines below). I think it flows quite nicely.

The model has on a red-orange head scarf, orange shawl and a green blouse and skirt (complementary colors again). I loved the relaxed pose of the hands and have been challenging myself to paint hands lately. Because most of this painting is loose and fresh I did not want to overwork the hands. The hands because they were so small and delicate are the last things I painted. I used my reference photos to capture the hand pose and shading.

Sunflower Rhapsody 12X 16, oil on canvas