Work on this painting progressed very well today.  Maybe, it helped to have a beautiful and bright sunny, cold day to inspire and hope one day spring will be here. 

This painting is all about color.  When starting this morning, all the flowers were still white, but some of the stems and buds had the first glaze of color.  Another glaze was added to the buds, darkening them and adding a bit more detail.  The stems also needed more work, with some shadows added and a couple of them were too thick, so the background was worked in around them.  A light glaze of pale green was brushed lightly over some of the leaves to either push them back and give a couple of them a little more form. 

A lot of contemplation went into what color or colors the poppies were going to be.  First I thought all white, but it was too boring.  Yellow?  Red?  Last night, I was working on this at a painting group night.  I stood the painting up to see the progress, and a couple of the ladies were making comments.  One said to make the poppies blue, but I made a remark; "They wouldn't look real."  She quipped back with, "What's real about this painting?"  We all had a laugh, because at that point, nothing did look real.  Even now, there are many abstract qualities.

What a difference it made by painting the flowers with a very pale glaze of yellow and adding the centers.  They were beginning to look like poppies!  All of the poppies being yellow wasn't going to do it, so finally I came across a picture of some Iceland Poppies in my garden. They were yellow, orange and white.  So, the process of glazing started again.  I wanted to leave the one poppy on the right side about 1/4 of the way from the edge to be the main focus, so white was the best choice.  The deepest part of the shadows were also underneath this one, which helped in the decision making process. 

Once the flowers were painted, some of the 'splash' in the background needed some additional paint. Areas were deepened next to the light of the flower, and some white areas were glazed with a nearby color.  This really made the flowers pop out more.

There may be some 'tweaking' still to do on the poppies, but I will let it 'gel' for a few days before any further work is done.   This has been a very exciting process.  Throwing and splashing paint brings about unexpected results.  I hope you give it a try.

I would love to hear your comments about this painting process, and if you would care to share your paintings with me, that would even be better.  Thank you.

Even with snow and cold weather in the air, I wish you all a garden of joy!