Later with the Breaths

It's done and so I liked it however...kept working on it and it now looks like this:

  I was happy with it for a minute, now I am going to redo the whole background.  It's too nit picky and just ugh!

In a tizzy today, not very much correct around here...had to clean out shoe shelves, then had to organize bathroom drawers to accommodate first aid stuff which we all of a sudden need.  And another problem which I am not talking about here, like pimples, warts, etc.  Don't even ask if I am breathing today, cuz I am NOT and don't event want to...lol.

Just kiddin', I do want to but not now...

Splat!? I don't remember doing it, honest.

So today which is Thursday, I woke with a bang ready to shower, get dressed and get over to friend Joan's house for a critique of art.  The only problem is our meet date is Friday...so no shower, no combing of the hair but there is brushing of the teeth.  Brushing of the teeth is the one thing I do before entering my art cave, i.e. the room where I create.

Here is my painting of the poppies, still being worked.  At this point I am thinking pale sky and pale green as the field in which these flowers are growing.  I'm picking out the darks versus the lighter areas, always considering composition.

 As I get to this point, I am confused.  I can see most of the flowers and understand the overall painting but there is the area right in the exact middle where it confuses the hell out of me.  This is because I really don't understand if that is in the background, foreground, or if it's just splat! orange paint splatted there.  I don't remember splatting but I'm the only one here.

Here's a closer look at the splat.  Now that I've had some time to look at it, I can see it's another flower behind the front one.  Ok, so now onto finishing this baby...I am thinking I am either going to take out the splat or make it into an understandable poppy.

Darn it!  Gotta do the Sutter Creek Gallery newsletter before it's May...stop Bobbie, catch your breath Sweetheart and breathe.  Ok, I am breathing...1, 2, 3, breathe...1, 2, 3.  Ok, I'm calm.

Be back tomorrow, hopefully to finish this painting before Spring ends!

Poppies, again

It seems every year when we get the first bit of sunshine in the Valley, I think of poppies and begin to see them at the sides of the road and in the fields of grasses that we still have in some of the fields that are left surrounding us.

So what happens when I get that feeling and I have a new canvas sitting in the corner, I begin to draw.  I do a small drawing on my sketch pad, just a roundabout kind of image of what is in my mind and then I think about the colors I will use and kind of get my paint ready on my palette.  Then I transfer the drawing onto my canvas and voila!

 Now I have a beginning, whew! Time to take a nap or a walk around the neighborhood.

After resting and deciding that I need more color onto the thing, I begin with light oil paint washes to kind of give me a chance to change my palette if I so desire at this point.

Alrighty, I'm thinking the palette is good-- kinda light and airy and the flowers can stand out without worrying about the background.