Commissioned garden painting

For the past three years, I have donated a painting from a “photo of your choice” to our church’s spring auction. On Sunday I saw the woman who bid this year and we looked at her garden and photos. I chose one that had a great composition and yesterday I spent most of the day painting it. I took pictures at various stages and thought I would share them with you. You can see how abstract the initial hard pastel layers are. (I guess if I wanted to be an abstract painting, I’d stop there!) I next work with nothing but Giraults, adding the greens and some violets. Then moved to softer pastels for the highlights on the trees and the flowers. I told my studio neighbor, Cathy Abramson, that years ago I would have had no idea how to start a painting like this. But by learning to see shapes, it’s made complex subject matter much more doable. In the final picture, the structure in the background is a tree house that her husband built for the kids. I was happy to get as much into the picture as I could. When I saw the garden on Sunday it was all green and all the same value and temperature!!! Today I did another painting in the studio that isn’t finished yet, but I’m liking it a lot. Will share when it’s done.