Narcissus in Norway, 14″ x 11″, UART dark mounted board

Initial stages before flowers

I’ve decided to take a break and post my latest painting, done some weeks ago.  We are moving!!!  Many of you will already know this, but not all.  We are moving on April 5th to a lovely senior living residence in Bethesda, Fox Hill.  It has a great art room and the food is supposed to be wonderful. But I’m keeping my studio on Wilkins and have moved most of my things, including my large David Sorg easel there.  We’ve lived in our house for 28 years and I’ve loved it since the first day I peered in the window and saw a studio!!!  But now it’s time to move on and fortunately, we have sold the house to our neigbors, who also love art and music AND do tango dancing!!!  They plan to have parties!

So, some weeks ago, I went to the studio with Mary Ellen Simon and did one more flower painting on  11 x 14 UART dark.  This one was a challenge as the wall was completely gray in the photo.  But I loved the way the flowers curled down over the stone.  The photo was taken in Stavanger, on the Atlantic Coast south of Bergen in 2019.

The color of the rocks was the main issue.  I didn’t like the pure gray and began with grayed red violet, then remembered that I would be using oranges and switched to blues.  I laid in the rocks and grassy covering first before doing anything with the flowers or vines.  I really liked the small area of sky at top right with flowers and leaves against it, and the area of steps on the lower right.  However, it’s not the greatest composition ever (or painting!).

Putting in the flowers and leaves with really soft pastels was fun, particularly the variety of yellow to yellow orange and reds in the blossoms.  When I brought it home, I decided to try to tone down the blues by adding some of the Blue Earth warm neutrals over them.  I can’t say that it helped a whole lot!

So from now on, I’ll either be painting in my Wilkins studio or at Fox Hill.  I want to paint there so as to meet other artists and get better aquainted.  And I’ll make plans to display work in a cabinet that they have for a featured artist.  But I doubt that this will happen anytime soon.  We are packing, packing, packing–and then—unpacking!!!  See you on the other side!

Jean