I wasn't intending to paint these little marigolds- they were the last in my garden. We'd had a few light frosts, and the killing frost was just around the corner, so as I cleaned out the beds to keep them from turning into muck, I plucked these three, put them into a little, horribly tarnished (I must confess) bud vase, and brought them up to the studio just to relish their cheeriness in the Face of It All.
There, sitting next to a Wasabi pea can that holds brushes, they turned into a still life. Now mind you, I'm not horribly good at flowers. My more or less organic approach to painting fails me there; I either want to draw them, or revert to a grand Flemish take on anything floral, and I can't seem to shake it. Still, I'm pleased that these are so marigoldish even if it happened to be design by accident. If I were to hark to Whistler, I'd have to throw out the painting right now.
As an aside, a note on the tubes of paint that found their way unto the board; one of the most useful colors I can think of, Art Spectrum's Australian Red Gold is arrayed there. It, and its sibling, the Australian Green Gold are worth exploring if you haven't done so yet- they are transparent colors that just seem to hit a note that I can't mix. While you're checking out Art Spectrum's palette, mosey over to the Lilac as well. It's an opaque, and amoung it's many uses, it's unbeatable mixed with Grumbacher's Nickel Titanate Yellow if you want to make a bang-up silvery grey. Just lovely.