A Floral Work in Progress

I'm not sure if it is obvious from the photo, but this one is a big boy - 3 foot height by 4 foot length, so it is taking me a good deal of time. I had originally started a painting of three goldfish on this canvas but eventually gave up and scrapped it (the design I was envisioning needed the blendability and fast-working nature of watercolors rather than oils). The blue background of what was the goldfish' water is now the sky behind the flowers. And some of the goldfish remnants have been blended into orange and red petals on the flowers or painted over entirely. As I mentioned in a previous post, I find it really nice to start on a canvas that already has some paint on it. Not only is does it prevent that ever-intimidating first stroke on that white tabula rosa, it also creates some really nice shadowing and layering effects. On the other hand, you need to make sure you don't have a lot of left over texture from a previous painting (you can carefully scrape a lot of it off with a palette knife) or that will create problems in your new painting. I am having fun with the flowers as a counterbalance to working on the two portraits. You don't have to be quite as precise with flowers - if you are slightly off on the angle or size of a petal or leaf, no one is the wiser. If you give Aunt Betsy an oversized, skewed nose however, well, I assure you she will certainly notice!