I had so much fun painting the balloon flowers on tuesday I picked some more and painted them again. This time I did a much more high key (lighter colors), than tuesday's painting.  I mixed in some coreopsis and a few blanket flowers to give some dashes of contrast.
Thank you for viewing my art!

The Gravy Boat     11x14   o/.b

Today's painting is all about color.  The flower gardens are alive with painting options!  I bought a new vase last night( love the shape!!), and chose the flowers that I felt worked with the color.  When I had the stilllife set up I was wowed with the colors together!
I'm pleased with the painting, although noone does it better than Mother Nature!

Dianthus and Balloon Flowers      14x18  o/l

Saturday was a perfectly sunny Michigan summer day!  The PAAWM group joined with the GLPS and Merizon Studio to create an event that was wonderfully enjoyable!  The Merizon Farm sits in the country hills, rolling with wildflowers, overlooking the city of Grand Rapids in the distance.  It is beautiful.  The plein air event was very well attended and the day was weather perfect.  I had a hard time choosing a subject amongst so many options, but eventually planted myself in front of the old gardens and painted the hollyhock.

Merizon's Hollyhocks     7x12  ob

I thought I'd do a painting with more detail to the background than I have been doing.  I kept the detail in the background minimal but still gave a "setting" rather than just the flowers on their own.  The checkered tablecloth was a playful element I chose, but I didn't want to paint every check..I thought that would not be fitting with the looser style of the flowers so I tried to create some checks just to "suggest" that it is all checked and stripes.  The white vase is actually a bee catcher, but I love the shape!

Ruby Red Lillies       o/c  11x21

I really had fun with this one today.  It has a rather country charm to it.  I wanted to represent the Coreopsis blossoms clearly, but didn't want to lose the looseness by rendering every flower. I think it work out well.  I worked with a bit more of a complicated background than I have been doing.  The stripes in the fabric caught my eye and I really wanted to paint it.
Hope you enjoy!  Thank you for viewing my art!

A Crock of Coreopsis     o/lb   14x18

Boy...today was a struggle.  I started out with some different color combinations and then spent the entire painting trying to get "rid" of those colors!  The flowers were challenging in shape alone and I think I just started out too complicated.  In the end I feel it pulled together, but I think I'd be happier with it if the background colors weren't quite so warm in temperature.  I hope you will give me some feedback...I'll love to hear your thoughts!
Have a lovely day, and thank you for viewing my art.

Foxglove   10x20  o/c

Festival of the Arts  2012

Regional Art Competition

I worked with exaggerating the lost edges on this piece.  I love the way you can create depth in a painting by just losing edges into the background!
I had a wonderful weekend.  The painting that was accepted in the Muskegon 84th Regional Art exhibit sold!  Yay!
On saturday I was privileged to be invited to an awards celebration for my piece at Festival in Grand Rapids...it is really something special that a business would support the artist community by presenting awards and donating their time and money to do so.  I admire that and certainly appreciated the privilege to be one of the artists fortunate to be so honored.
I hope you will enjoy this painting and thank you for taking the time to view my art.

Apricot Roses     14x18 o/cb