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Day 21 of the 50 Day painting challenge - Texas Wild Flowers - by George De Chiara

Texas Wild Flowers

 Today I once again turned to some of my photo reference for inspiration.  Last year, I took some photos of the south Texas wild flowers blooming and decided to do something with them today. Spring of 2010 was an explosion of color everywhere I looked. My in-law's house is surrounded by fields that all bloomed. One had these yellow sun flowers as far as the eye could see, and another had these little white and blue and purple flowers everywhere. I just couldn't decide which one to paint, so I did the next best thing. I took  the two images I couldn't decide on into Photoshop and combined them. 

Here's how today's painting came about:

 

This is my very rough block in, but its enough to get started with. The placement of the blooms is more or less worked out. I know it's hard to see, but as the image progresses, it should be easier to notice that those yellow spots will become flowers. Even though the drawing is very loose at this point, it is still carefully done. I moved around the main yellow flowers a few times to get them placed where I wanted. Since the paint is so thin at this stage it's pretty simple to move things around.

 

 

Now I can start to work in thicker paint and more accurate drawing. I've started with this spot because it's close to my center of interest and it will help me establish my lightest lights and darkest darks right off the bat.

 

Now, I'm just continuing out from where I started. I try to be as careful as I can with the shapes I paint. To get to this stage took a while and I'm not sure why, but I didn't stop to take any pictures from this point on. I remember I kept thinking to myself, I'll stop just as soon as I solve this problem or that problem, but just when I starting thinking about taking a picture another problem would pop up and I'd forget about taking a photograph. Really that's what painting is, it's problem solving. I can tell you that when I thought I had finished the painting, there was something about it that I wasn't happy with. While I stood back looking at it trying to figure out what I was missing, my wife came into the studio and within a minute or two suggested making the white flowers a little lighter and putting a bit of a deeper blue in some of the flowers. Isn't it great to have a fresh pair of eyes occasionally?

 

The finished painting.

 

Texas Wild Flowers

Painting Details:
Larger Version available here
Size: 6x6 inches on canvas panel. 
Medium: Original Oil Painting
Frame: none
Availability: Click here to bid.

Signed on front. Signed and dated on back.

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Topics: 50 paintings in 50 days challenge | Daily Painting | flowers | landscape | oil painting | Step by Step