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Spring"Flow" Show Features Three of My Paintings

In January I embarked on a new self-imposed oil painting project/collection, with the goal of down-selecting three paintings for Dreama Tolle Perry's spring Flow membership art show. Picking a subject for a collection and staying focused was a challenge for me; my mind is usually racing around in a million artistic directions. I knew I wanted something static, that I could work on without it changing. Fake flowers as a still life were the perfect choice! They wouldn't wilt in the direct studio light, and I could make them do whatever I wanted. Still, I wanted it to be simple, so I refined my collection subject a step further. 

From left to right: Rose-Bauer Duet (oil, 6"x8"), Voodoo (oil, 6"x8"), and Peace (oil, 6"x6").

I own a single beautiful silk rose, bought at a specialty store last year. If I had to guess, it's modeled on the Peace hybrid tea rose. So I decided all ten of my paintings for the collection would be based on this single rose. From there, I mind mapped a whopping 35 ideas that I could see painting. I refined a few other choices, too (palette, technique, size), so that I could eliminate as much "waffling" as possible, which often derails me when starting a painting. 

I'm happy to report that I made eight paintings! And I chose two of them for Dreama's show, which is online now for another two weeks. Peace was #2 in the collection and Rose-Bauer Duet was #8. I'm amazed at how much better I rendered the rose in the final painting than when I started, although there is a freshness to the earlier rose that I really like. And obviously, there are another six paintings that vary in my happiness with the outcome, including one painted solely in burnt umber as a value study because I was so frustrated with those darn yellow shadows. 

The Voodoo painting was completed late last year, as the last of the roses from my garden were blooming before winter set in. That particular painting is my third attempt. Not that the other two are bad, but this one really captured the intensity of color along with the value patterns in the flower.  

As usual, I was pretty critical of my paintings, but now that the show is up and they've been out of my mind for over a month, I have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself. Sure, there's room for improvement, but overall, I had an intention to participate in the show, and I set the goals needed to get it done. That, in my book, is success. 

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