Flower painting. Minnesota and South Dakota flower paintings.

I have had a long-standing love of flowers in their declining days. These flowers are at that stage and it has caused them to relax around each other. They look to me like they would love each other with their last breath.

I’m having a completely retro month! All the things about this that are inspired by paintings I’ve found in my studio cleanup:

1) Painting on gessoed wood. Good grief a lot of paint was sucked up! But on the bright side the pallet knife was super fun and useful on this surface, and brush strokes have a very different and prominent effect.

2) Lemon yellow has officially made a comeback on my pallet. 🙂 I’m starting to get the hang of how to not let it take over.

3) I primarily used a 3/4″ paint brush and pallet knife for almost the whole painting.

4) It’s a still life painting in the window, with the focus on the light shining through.

5) The painting was available on Ebay.

Please let me know what you think of my current art direction.

lovers500

 

Portrait artist paints “Oranges and Dahlia” flower painting (SOLD)

Oranges and the Dahlia
5×7 inches, oil on gesso board, unframed

In my last post the big white dahlia (I think that’s what this flower is) was the star of the show. In his one I wanted her to blend in with the snow outside the window. Both are shown below. What do you think?

I’ve been inspired by Carlson’s Guide to Landscape Painting to experiment with painting medium. I have a bottle of Linseed oil, a can of odorless mineral spirits, and a bottle of Stand oil (from Utrecht). I started out with about 50/50 OMS and Linseed oil, with just a little Stand oil for thickness and have been adjusting to get the mixture just right.

IMG_2412 copy Oranges and Dahlia-rasche

Portrait artist paints wilting flowers

“Wilt” / 8×6 in / oil painting on canvas / simply framed / available in my gallery of available paintings / inquire / Love It guarantee

I really liked the way these flowers have started spraying over the side of the vase. The colors are much nicer in the actual painting – I need to spend some time setting up a photo area, but it’s hard to take the time away from painting… – see other floral paintings

flowers start out beautiful, and then become more and more interesting as they age. Here are some flowers mid-wilt.