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