#32 White trumpets

At first I had these set up on a white background, thinking that the leaf shapes would make a nice contrast. But when I changed the backdrop to black, the flowers AND the leaves popped out. Anyway, the flowers are a natural subject--they're more interesting than the leaves.
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#31 Reader chilling

In this simple painting of someone relaxing at the beach, there is no actual sky, but the water reflecting the sky provides the same lightness. I was set up under an awning so I didn't have to protect myself from the sun.

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#30Pals

The clear colors on this day were reflecting warmth everywhere. The red jacket near a white horse really enhanced that quality.

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#29 Warm connection

One thing that I learned from this painting is that some subjects are better suited to a larger format. My detail brushes got a workout, as did the palette knife for scrape offs.

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#28 Cloudbreak

Experimenting with the palette knife is fun. I won't be giving up my brushes, but I will be using the knife more often.

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#27 East evening view

I was working on simplifying things in my paintings, so picking a  late afternoon scene offered an opportunity to paint one big light shape and one big shadow shape. 

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#26 Fence dreaming 1

I know most people hang over the fence to talk to a neighbor; sometimes it's just a nice place for dreaming.

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#25 Singing flower

Decided to go with white on black for the contrast with this white flower. While the values are similar within the objects in the set up, the background is totally opposite.
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#24 Flowers on a cloudy day

This started out as an exercise in shadow shapes--that is when the sun WAS shining! So-it had to become a cloudy day painting, with softer shadows.

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#23 reaching orchids

North lighting seemed the best choice to showcase these delicate orchids.

#22 flower party

I'm surprised these flowers didn't wilt under the light bulb.  I found this brass vase at Goodwill. 

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#21 Pear appearance

Sometimes I think of the shadow box set-up as a stage; this pear seemed to enjoy the spotlight.
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#20 Sunflower alley

I like to see sunflowers on a rainy and chilly day like today, to remind me of the summery experience of being on this farm in Virginia.

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#19 the power of yellow

Adding a thick application of the yellow paint in the light areas of the flower gave it more oomph, especially next to the thinly applied paint elsewhere.
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#18 Goodbye winter

Toby agrees that the last bit of winter can go ahead and melt away! This scene offered many curving lines and shapes to play with.

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#17 white shapes and lines

The flowers, cup and reflected lines were  all different kinds of white while the rest was variations of gray green. Trying to keep it simple--famous last words...

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#16 yellow and violet arrangement

My plan was to push the yellow by putting it next to violet. It didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated, so these yellow flowers got scraped off with the knife a few times.

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#15 lilies with snow, morning

Had to do this in the morning to catch the last bit of melting snow.  This same set up in the afternoon gave a whole different feel to the overall temperature.

#14 orange twins

Lots of neutral color allows  these clementines to glow.

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#13 Lilies in snow

The snow doesn't stick around for very long this time of year.  Paired with white lilies, it created a value pattern with very few dark tones.

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#12 surrounded by transparency

Using transparent things in this set up allowed me to play with the thickness and thiness of the paint.

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#11 Red Dots

The red dot on the bottle of wine was the inspiration for the name of this painting; it become part of the path of red leading in, then out of the rectangle.

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#10 Lily white

I liked using two different kinds of white to play with making a simple dark, light and medium value study. Plus, lilies smell great!

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#9 Orange on a ledge

I was going for simple geometric shapes in this one, with focal point at the lightest value and  highest chroma.

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#8 Arrangement in Blue

This one is an excercise in blues. How purple is the blue, or how red?

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#7 Shooting stargazer 3

I like the frame within a frame idea--I used the gold in the frame to carry the warm yellow orange through and around the painting surface.

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