Y’all, I hit a garage sale mother lode last weekend with this painting. First, it’s a hefty 20×16 canvas and it’s signed. I loved it in all its hesitant, fugly purples and pinks and knew I had to take it home with me. My husband sighed and loaded it in the car, so that’s how you know it’s really good.
S. Banks, whoever you are, I want you to know I have mad respect for anyone who’s willing to fill up this much canvas with floral musings. It’s not easy to face that much real estate with nothing more than a number 8 filbert brush and a starter pack of acrylics. But, I knew that it could be so much more when I saw it.
First of all, the light source. I see there’s a shadow on the table, but none of the plants are involved in casting shadows. Also, there’s a lot of disconnects between the flower petals, stems and background. It feels sparse. And that pot? With that many flowers, reaching that high, you’re going to put them in a squat little pot? I don’t think so.
I took some liberties.
As you can see, I did a few things: shortened the table, reshaped the bouquet, and added a few elements: the window on the right and the chair are new. Also, that sad, 1994 mauve background had to go — too many midtones, not enough darks! At that same neighborhood garage sale, I got some open Grumbacher paints (hello, dioxazine purple!) and decided to go all-in on the “reuse, reduce, recycle” vibe of this effort.
At this point, I was toying with the idea of making the pot translucent so we could see the stems, but nixed that in favor of terra cotta.
I then jumped back and forth between the elements, working on a mix of flowers, background, chair, window, table. I really hate painting flowers, or maybe I hate painting light flowers on dark backgrounds with old paint? Yeah, that’s probably the source of my frustration. Anyway, it took a long, fiddly time to fill out that flower pot. I enjoyed painting in the chair, and making this look like a homely kitchen scene (with purple walls!).
The shadows and other details went on last. Basically, I worked from big brush to little brush, dark to light to do this redux.
After I hung it in the bathroom gallery and got the usual, surprised reaction from my husband, I realized that you wouldn’t put cut flowers in a terra cotta pot. Grrr. Argh. I’m probably the only one who will ever care about that, and I’m reluctant to paint over the pot I have because I really like how it turned out. Plus, I think the terra cotta effect looks good against purple walls. Those of you who are doing a purple kitchen remodel can do what you will with that information.
I got a few more free canvases in the hopper. On to the next.
