fall flowers

I started with a careful contour drawing of the main value boundaries of the mass of flowers. That made it much easier to freehand in color shapes. I worked from dark to light. The main problem I had was that the tablecloth was originally a single, flat violet which looked totally wrong. I had to pay the price and work in color gradation around the painted bouquet. Also, next time I do a still life, I'll work the background in sections while the subject is wet. That way I can get softened edges throughout, like those of the submerged leaves in the vase. 20" x 20"

goat pen, New Mexico

Based on a dramatic friend-of-a-friend photo on Facebook. I used my Scene Sketcher app to simply the field of tall grass and brush into a patchwork and tried to stay responsive to the color logic of the stormy sunset. 36" x 27".