"Sunny Day" 8 x 8 oil on board

The Girls Just Wanna Paint theme for April is "festive". This is my interpretation.  Throughout the months, especially during winter, I will often bring a bundle of sunflowers home from the local grocery and put them in the window.  Each time I pass through the room, I get a little festive zing from their angles, the sun bouncing off the petals, and the reflected light inside and/or beneath them.  Each flower has its own personality.  

I used a photo reference of sunflowers on my porch for this painting; taking what I needed for the design.  Here are some process photos:

Reference photo: you can see how I adjusted the design for this square

Blocking in, laying down the lightest and darkest notes

Added in the background, a cooler, neutralized green; good time to carve out the edges of each sunflower; making sure nothing was too symmetrical

More modeling in the darks, the leaves.  I softened a bunch of edges, added dappled sunlight onto the flower below and the leaves, implying depth.  Looked for areas to push elements behind other elements to create depth, and vibrated color into the center of the top right flower.

As always, thanks for looking. You know I love your comments.  

"Fair Friends" oil 8 x 8

Every year, I do a painting demo at the Marshfield Fair.  You can find me on the first Sunday hanging out upstairs in the main building.  The juxtaposition of inside and outside is always intriguing for me.  I chat away with children and adults.  The room is visually stimulating with beautiful quilts hanging from the rafters and a wide variety of handmade arts and crafts entered by the public. Check the Fair website for entry categories and dates in the exhibitor handbook each year.  
To the left, you can see how I blocked in this painting, with one dark and warm shape for the inside, and a cool yellow light shape for the outside space, along with the indication of some people in the doorway.  I may get back there this week for another painting day.. hope so.
 

"Daisy Patch" oil 12 x 9

The theme for this month's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge was "daisy".  I found a cool little patch of daisies nearby, and was just as interested in the depth of blue greens between and around the flowers themselves.  I decided to paint over an old still life study from years ago, thinking the underlying reds and oranges would work well with harmony of the daisies in the patch.

Here's the still life, to the left, placed vertically in my easel.  I began by blocking in the flowers in an arrangement that looked appealing, asymmetrical, yet balanced.  I added some stems, some stems to nowhere, and a few buds for balance.  After the stems and leaves were added, I completed the background with a variety of blues and greens, leaving some of the warmth of the original painting, which implies the warm dark spaces beneath the flowers where the sky can't reach.  

Check out the rest of the Girls Just Wanna Paint images for the month here.  Thanks for looking.

"Art in the Street" oil 12 x 16 oil

Every year I paint on the street of our local art festival which brings thousands of visitors to our little village over its two days on Memorial Day weekend. Spring is (almost) in the air, so I pulled out last year's street painting and finished it; always a nice exercise for the dark of winter. I love standing on the street for the day, painting the moving crowd and chatting with people.
We mark the passing winter weeks here by counting the days...  
 
 15 days until Daylight Savings time ends, 37 days until Red Sox home opener, and just 13 weeks until this year's North River Arts Festival!

Thanks for looking.