Last Chance...

Sunflower Head   watercolor   8 x 8

warnings always bring me back to reality.  As I spend a good deal of time in my imagination, I tend to overlook some important things until they become a crisis:  i.e.  last gas station for the next 200 miles, last chance to use the restroom until the plane lands, and last chance to visit Stuckey's pecan roll superstore.  The sunflowers came and went in my garden throughout the summer.  As they waned, we placed the heads near the bird feeder.  I thought the opportunity to paint them had passed me by.  Then early in September, I noticed two tender sunflowers that had sprouted from the bird droppings.  Having painted sunflowers many times before, I wanted this attempt to be different from all of the others.

It was, after all, my last chance.

Do the Georgia...

O'Keefe.  Another painting exercise that is wonderfully exciting is what I call "Blown Up Blooms".  Georgia said that she painted large blooms to produce more impact, as people don't really SEE flowers...they pass them by.  True.....big is good....big can be seen.  Another by product is the fact that we can't rely on reality as much. Each part of the bloom, the petal or the leaf for example, is so much larger that we have to rely on our creativity with the paint.  It also, to me, has a more modern look.  Perhaps the little vases of posies have been overdone so much that, even if beautifully done, they have become visual chloroform to me.  So.....blown up blooms.  

Sunflower Head   watercolor   8 x 8