Romantic Botanicals #62

Count Romaine goes West

It is the last day of school and now the kids are out for the summer.  At lunch my son and his friends have a fire and make smores and burn their school work that they don't want to keep. After the fire I begin painting.

This is the romaine lettuce in the garden gone to flower. It is a tall plant with swirling branches. The blue flowers open with the sun and close at night. While I paint it I realize how much the bees love it. Big bees, small bees and even whitish bees zoom around and drink. Three dragon flies rest on the branches for a long time, perhaps a half hour. It is much loved.

The narrative I build is of Count Romain who goes on the wagon train trail. He is spoiled and doesn't know how to work or help others but he is humorous and fun loving. On the wagon train is the preacher's daughter who has the opposite traits.

I simplify as I go because this is a very complex image. I paint the bees and dragonflies as they happen. It interrupts the flow of the painting as the composition is in flux each time a suitor for the flower arrives. It is a ongoing randomness that creates a will-it-flop or will-it-fly riskiness that makes me feel alive as I paint.

romantic botanicals #62  Count Romaine goes West,  June 30,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny to shady 5h

it is a very tall plant

the lens my brother gave me works so well to capture the activity in the lettuce plant. Photos are so accurate.

It is like Teletubby land in the backyard as 3 bunnies nibble away beside me. They are eating the clover and dandelions.

Romantic Botanicals #61

Pirate Susan's Revenge

 

Today is a supplies day I spend an hour cleaning my clogged brushes with brush cleaning fluid, go to the art store and buy 14 more canvases and pallet paper and gesso 7 of the canvases. It is the behind the scenes boring time consuming stuff that need to be done to keep the project afloat. I will go tomorrow and buy more plastic gloves and paper towel. My back is a bit out from hula hooping too much while chaperoning my daughter's grad.

I am doing this new thing lately where I sit for a while before I start and I think of the narrative that I see so that all my choices pull towards that. This pirate piece has a dark spiky underbelly. There is a cheerful group that Pirate Susan and her 2 sisters are going to try to blend in with.

romantic botanicals #61   Pirate Susan's Revenge,  June 29,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" bright sunny3.5h

Romantic Botanicals #60

Peony Graduates

wow #60!

This would have been I day I didn't make art if I wasn't on one-a-days.

It is my daughter's grad 6 grad so I am thinking about the primary colours as she is leaving primary school.  Red petaled Penoies, with yellow highlights and a blue background. I keep it simple.

romantic botanicals #60   Peony Graduates,  June 28,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny,2.5h

I let out a huge scream when I look down and see this crawling on my leg while I am concentrating on painting.

this bunny eats near me

my daughter with her grad certificate. This is why I do a quicker painting so I can go to see and celebrate her grad.

Romantic Botanicals #59

Lord Clover

I volunteered with the grade 3/4 neighborhood bike excursion and helped decorate the school gym for grade 6 grad so my painting time was two hours sandwiched in between these activities. I just got down to business and painted. Sunny.

These clovers are tall and the stems criss cross each other. Bees came and hung off the edge of them and drank.

romantic botanicals #59   Lord Clover,  June 27,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny, 2h

this is when I finished the painting but the camera was on a cropped setting so I rephotographed in the evening. Look at the colour difference just because of lighting.

Romantic Botanicals #58

 Peony in Turbulence

I check and check out the windows and doors but it rains all day until 5 pm.
When  I paint the wind swirls around me swaying the big pine trees in my front yard and knocking needles into my paint and knocking my hat off. I paint fast to get out of the wind and before the rain can start again. I think it could rain any minute so try to have something that looks complete at every stage in case I need to stop.

The space theme is still strong with Peony. I add the swirling atmosphere that is buffeting both of us as I paint.

romantic botanicals #58   Peony in Turbulence,  June 26,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" windy almost raining 1.5 h

I wish this was a video so you could see the tops of the trees moving above me.

Romantic Botanicals #57

Peony and the Last Frontier

The peonies are weighted down with water from the morning thunderstorm. The ants don't come until half way through my painting secession. The stems must have been too slippery.

I have this space theme going with the peonies. Their weighty pointy balls of petals seem suspended in air and rocket out from the main bush. So I paint like it is a dark night sky and these are space stations almost touching. I put a warm blue between them and a cool blue around them thinking this will emotional draw the two together.

romantic botanicals #57  Peony and the Last Frontier,  June 25,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12"shady, 3h

Romantic Botanicals #56

Peony Sets Out

I was at the Winnipeg Arts Council Awards lunch. I was nominated for a volunteer award along with Sandra Brown for our work organizing the Artist Mothers Group at MAWA. I heard some thoughtful speakers, met other artists and ate an nice lunch. I am finding it strange to be inside for long periods of time since I have been doing this project I really like being outside.

The peonies have a pink that I can not match today so I make an in-the-range-of match. I start at 3 and it is hot and muggy. I let my wrist make lazy swoopy swirl motions. With the peonies I focus on the heaviness of the flowers and buds that are suspended in space by the stems. This work has a crossing, reaching and longing feel to it.

romantic botanicals #56  Peony Sets Out,  June 24,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" afternoon muggy, 1.5 h

Romantic Botanicals #55

The Pursuit of Dr. Shepherd

My shoulder muscle hurts from painting too long yesterday but the weather is perfect and sunny.

Probably the smallest plant in my yard, Shepherd's Purse is so delicate and tiny that I could only think of white to hold it in place almost like lacework. A smattering of pebbles adds to the tiny world.  The heart shaped seeds I painted pink but etched in dark blue shadows to ground the plants to the soil. Tiny bees choose shepherds purse and not the other flowers near by. A large dragonfly swoops over top of the scene giving measure to the scale.

romantic botanicals #55 The Pursuit of Dr. Shepherd,  June 23,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" morning sunny, 3 h

see all the tiny bees

I had to remember the quick flight of this dragonfly

Romantic Botanicals #54

Riotous and Reserved

I am doing double painting. I paint fish, sharks, seals and jelly fish for my daughters grade 6 grad then I go outside and paint my one a days. I have done this yesterday and today. I am so spacey while I paint the peonies that I keep starting thinking the ants I painted on the canvas are real. I bought a tiny brush and I can paint tiny legs and antennas now. I am so spacey sometimes I think wow my painting smells wonderful, then, Oh it is just a painting. The peonies smell wonderful I want to be an ant so I can go in the petals and roll around enveloped in the perfume.

The two peonies touch and occupy nearly the same space yet the two differ, one is fully open to the world and has lots of visitors suitors, while the other is timidly opening and has only one visitor suitor.  The many many petals are busy.

romantic botanicals #54, Riotous and Reserved,  June 22,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" evening, 4 h

I think this is the first time painting this series that I have sat in  a chair! The peonies are at chair height.

see that! ant wouldn't you be startled for a moment.

big sea creature paintings I did today

a big fish I painted today too

Romantic Botanicals #53

Bright Miss Camomile and the Agreement

Yesterday's yellow painting was muted tones and today the bright sun and open alley have me wanting a criper work.

I put a strong yellow base down and chose a turquoise for the camomile plants. My eyes blend the two colours together to make green. This is a cut out style to show the shadow and the image in the same way using a one stroke painting technique to outline the image.  I finish the work and stare at it wanting to spend more time on it but knowing that I will wreck all the fresh brush stokes if I do. So I pack up.

romantic botanicals #53, Bright Miss Camomile and the Agreement,  June 21,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny. 1h

I put a paper down behind the Pineapple Camomile plants so I can see the crisp shadows.

It is so lovely and intense the colours I have chosen, the sunny day and the wet reflective oil paint.

Not the most lovely spot but I can see over the dumpster to the builder who is spending another day on top of a ladder. I have to check that I am still actually in my yard for this one. The plants are in my yard but 6 inches from the border to the other country.

Romantic Botanicals #52

Pirate Susan Meets her Match

I love painting and daily is giving me a steady continuity that is so good.  I am squeezing all my other responsibility, the rest of my life, between paintings.

I make another all yellow toned painting. I have to pack up and return to the painting with a 2 hour gap in between and the Black Eyed Susans stems bend with the hot day. I thought the plant would stay in pose for me. Maybe if I paid it with a drink of water it would.

romantic botanicals #52, Pirate Susan Meets her Match,  June 20,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" shady spot. 3.5h

from where I sit I can see the contrast of both yards.

do I look tired? Day 52 today and last year I made it to 53 paintings.

Romantic Botanicals #51

Miss Camomile Compares

I have a late start and try to find a flower in my yard that I have not yet painted. The tiny pineapple camomile in the alley is my choice of the day. A robin gathers mud from a mud puddle across the alley from where I sit. It comes back every 10 to 20 minutes. I wonder what it is like to have a big mud ball in your mouth. I guess if you have no hands you have no choice.

The photo is not the final image but I stop for pizza supper and when I return outside the winds are so strong that I have to hold onto my canvas with one hand while I paint. Dirt and bits of whatever swirl at me thankfully hitting the back of the canvas. I can not let go of the canvas to take the final photo and I didn't want my lens hit with grit.  The only change I make is sharpening the shadow and adding a dark blue to it.Wind west 30 km/h gusting to 50 increasing to 60 gusting to 80.

I like that it is actual size which is tiny. I paint the actual distance between these two plants. They are at the same level so side by side there is a mirroring that goes on where you look back and forth to spot the differences. The flat yellow background goes back to the original botanical prints of isolating the plant to study it.

romantic botanicals #51,Miss Camomile Compares,  June 19,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" windy. 2hr

Romantic Botanicals #50

 Pirate Susan

My partner mowed all the clover in the lawn. I found these. I think I planted Black Eyed Susan last year and these may be them.

I am making a yellow painting. The tiny yellow petals are the most intense yellow. I like the hairs going up the stems and leaves. I wanted the lightness around their heads connecting them and a dark confusion around one of the bodies.

romantic botanicals #50,  Pirate Susan,  June 18,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" in the shade. 4hr

painting #50 and my paints look like they have been through a war.  I am running low on all the expensive colours that I bought in small tubes. I want to thank The Winnipeg Arts Council for funding my last project and therefore I had some leftover paint to do this project.  Also my Mom who bought me 2 large tubes of white paint half way through. Without her this work would be very dark. Then my family who I have been siphoning bits of house hold money from to buy oil, occasional brushes and the canvases. Also Gotrick who makes well made and inexpensive canvas so I can afford to paint on stretched canvas.

Romantic Botanicals #49

Redemption in Pickpocket Alley

Thundershowers all morning. I go outside to check all our downspouts and make a map of the problems but don't start painting till 2:30.  A neighbour comes by while I am painting to chat about art and his experience at art school. It is good to connect with another creative person.

This is a 3 hour painting. This work has a lightness because I started out making a yellow painting and then felt I wanted to keep the same colours of my previous Yarrow to connect the two paintings. The yellow underlay gives the turquoise a warm glow.  I want to show this crossroads and falling down feeling. The stems crisscross and bend down but there is an optimism that things will be redeemed.

romantic botanicals #49, Redemption in Pickpocket Alley,  June 17,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" sunny. 3hr

see the yellow underglow and the quick brush strokes.

Romantic Botanicals #48

Lord Clover is Ensnared

It is foretasted for a thunderstorm so I paint in the hut and fret about time and weather. Then the school calls, my daughter has hurt her hand and I need to pick her up. I take care of her and then am back out painting with the phone in case she needs me.

Today's painting is complicated it has the main figures and then the family and villagers in the background. It becomes a wedding scene with confetti swirling around the figures but done in baby colours, yellow pink and blue.

romantic botanicals #48, Lord Clover is Ensnared,  June 16,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" thunderstorm warnings. 6h

Romantic Botanicals #47

Lord Clover's  Conversation

Ok today I finally caught what my kids have had. I am slightly feverish. I spend a lot of time while working on this painting just lying down in the grass thinking about it and not painting. I think mainly about making a narrative between two flowers. With this in mind it is more of what I don't paint. I don't paint all the other clover flowers or leaves or grasses.

I researched portrait colours yesterday and have been using a pallet from a Thomas Gainsborough painting of his two daughters. I like it so much because they are both holding drawing portfolios. I am happy that surrounded by his art they made art too. I went to the Joe Fafard and Family show opening last week and along with his bronze animals are his grand children's bronze animals. I have never see a bronze done by an eight year old before and I wish there were more of them in the world.

I make two cluster balls. The clover flowers jut upwards and lean towards each other. I am outlining the flowers but soften the distinct edges.

romantic botanicals #47, Lord Clover's  Conversation, June 15,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" who knows I was too spacey to count, overcast

 

 

 

Portrait of the Artist's Daughters, Thomas Gainsborough 1760

Romantic Botanicals #46

Lord Clover gets Rumpled

Covers are popping up in the lawn and the bees like them. I start out with the intention of making a white painting but it ended up grayish blue probably because it is an overcast day.

I am making the flowers the actual size so the clover is small on the canvas. I was accentuating the two tall stems together and the leaves that circle around and support them. It is a quiet work with exuberant underpinnings.

romantic botanicals #46, Lord Clover gets Rumpled, June 14,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" 4hr, overcast

my son comes home from school and I am still painting.

another companion, a dragonfly lands on my arm while I paint.

here is how the painting started and I like the floating bits that circle and frame the figures but I wanted the two clover to be in a calm space so I wiped it all off with paper towel. You can't keep all the paintings that appear.

The builders next door work while I work and although I rarely talk with them they are good company to paint with.

Romantic Botanicals #45

Miss Beatrice goes to School

Two of my kids are sick. My son has a fever of 99.4 so I have the phone in my pocket while I paint and they call me in every 20 minutes to get water, find books etc. I try to paint fast but the 27 degree heat slows me up a bit.

The chives on either side of our small garden path form a small arch. I paint the bees that land at the edges of the arch to delineate the exciting path ahead.

romantic botanicals #45, Miss Beatrice goes to School, June 13,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" 3hr, sunny

Romantic Botanicals #44

The Man who Loved Me

Thundershowers all morning.

The irises are blooming 3 on one stem. I captured the pointy sharpness of the leaves, the white of the picket fence and smeared to show the ephemeralness of these flowers that only last a day or two.

romantic botanicals #44, The Man who Loved Me, June 12,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" 3hr, cloudy after a thunderstorm

before I smeared it out. It seems like the last ten minutes of these paintings is pivotal where I make a change to boost the mood and it makes it or breaks it.

I have had this painting its smeariness and colour scheme on my mind.  Mine I see is cool and this one is warm.
John Singer Sargent Painting : Madame Gautreau Drinking a Toast  1882-1883

Romantic Botanicals #43

Miss Beatrice and The Modern Man go Forward

Ack.. I danced too wildly at the spring carnival with my daughter last night. What fun but the dance floor was gravel and it was hard to do the twist. Now my back hurts while I sit and paint, hope it gets better because I need to sit for long periods of time on the ground.

This is a continuation of yesterday's idea of the tall floating feeling of the chive flowers and the crisscross grasses below. I do a swirly motion for the chives and I really like it. Each bee gets it's portrait done. Some bees fight over a single flower. Lots of action.

romantic botanicals #43 Miss Beatrice and The Modern Man go Forward, June 11,  2016 oil on canvas 9" x 12" 5hr, late day

see sitting on the ground. Usually I sit cross legged but put my legs sideways today. note my cardboard pallet cover and the chair I go sit in when I want to look at the painting from a distance.

here is how bees really look when they fly. I do memory portraits and they look really different from this.

Claude Monet Water Lillies.  I looked at this amazing painting to get an idea of purple paintings.