"Lavender and Gold"

"Lavender and Gold" -- oil on canvas 40x50"

As soon as I saw this beautiful purple glass bowl and silk scarf in a resale shop in Charlevoix, I knew it would be my next painting. Just fell in love with the colors!  It was high time to do another big still life, after months of the little 6x6's. 

Those are 2 little pots of petunias that I picked up at my favorite nursery (Pine Hill, in Torch Lake). Until fairly recently, I hadn't attempted painting flowers. Seems like I now compare everything to the difficulty of painting cupcakes: all those complicated swirls of frosting, the paper cup pleats....! Yikes!

Made a "new" discovery on this one. New to me, anyway: the deeper purple glass cylindar (in the back). How to make it a rich purple, yet give the illusion of smooth, translucent glass? A quandry. My first attempt showed the brushmarks ---- too upsetting! Finally, what I "discovered" on this one was to take a dry brush, dip it into the paint (in this case it was "ruby violet" from Vasari), smear it on the canvas, then wipe it off with a Viva paper towel. In effect, I was staining the canvas.

One of my friends saw this painting yesterday & she marveled at the glass bowl & reflections, etc. Well, up here, I have no TV reception. I totally refuse to shell out money for satellite TV. No cable here. So what else is there to do? Housework? Hah! Given the choice between mopping floors and figuring out reflections, you know what I would chose every time....!