What's to love about droopy?

I love spring and one thing that calls me to do as an artist- bring some flowers in to paint! I did some drawing first, hating then loving the droopiness of these pink tulips. Why aren't they standing up better- more like how I imagine and want them to be?

I looked more closely and found another connection.

Not unlike my own body, the perky, springy part is harder to access these days. Yet it is there- often rediscovered through loving kindness to myself and gratitude for all that this body has done for me. Today, free from disease, only hindered by minor aches and pains and my own attachment to them, I delight as another spring comes near. 

In a couple of days the clocks move forward and I'll be right there- celebrating the light and the new season.

Tulips and the Mountains

Another one from our stay at Catalina State Park. We are north of Tucson, in Oro Valley, and have enjoyed visiting the Tucson Botanical Gardens where the Frido Kahlo exhibit puts you right into her world of inspiration. If you're anywhere near Tucson, don't miss it.  We went to the Sonoran Desert Museum,  and I thoroughly enjoyed a private tour by a docent at the Tucson Museum of Art. 

Outside

I wanted to paint my tulips one last time, very damp out today on Galveston Island State Park.

More interested in color and shape today; painted with palette knife on Arches oil paper.

Love Day

Painted this on Valentine's Day but didn't get a chance to post. My birthday tulips looking wonderful in the sunshine prompted me to just set up. I wanted to keep the background abstract while showing one side decidedly light and the other in shadow.

Arches oil paper approx 8x10

Studio Input

I was painting merrily along yesterday and asked for (be careful what you ask for) some input from my studio colleagues and here's what I heard

1. It's looking like 2 different paintings, the chair on the right and the flowers on the left.

2. The upper right corner is too heavy and the bottom right corner pulls you out.

Now first, let me say, I asked for feedback. With it I have choices. Leave it my way or take suggestions. In the end, I just want a good painting! Note: they gave me all positive feedback first! I love being in a studio with such caring, talented, and generous artists who want and help me be a better painter!

I have integrated the colors, putting more reds into the flowers, lost the upper chair arm altogether, lightened the color of the cast iron of the chair, it now has the colors of the shadows in the paper, lost some edges and now it will hang on the studio wall until I say, "Finished!" As usual, I welcome comments.

Beginning of Yellow Tulips

I'm painting over an old painting, so first I sand the surface of the canvas, wipe off, then rub over it with a rag saturated with linseed oil/mineral spirit mix. I painted my initial layout using thinned down ultramarine and a #6 bristle round brush. This is the only time I really ever use a round brush! Mixing the values I want and not worrying too much about getting the exact color, I lay down paint in big shapes. Ok, that's all the time I have today!

16x20 oil on canvas