Demitasse and Orchid

"Demitasse and Orchid" -- oil on canvas 36x48" -- Margie Guyot

Running WAY behind on my posts!  Trying to catch up.  This painting I did a few years ago.  Right now it's hanging in Gallery 50, in Traverse City, in their "Art of Food & Wine Show".  They had a chef judging the artwork this time and he awarded mine "this is so intense" award.  Which I take as a compliment!  I'd be horrified if it got a "this is so trite" award.  Or a "Thomas Kincade Wannabe" award.

It was really challenging to paint!  The "tablecloth" was fabric from Jo Ann Fabrics.  The pale green napkins were from a garage sale.  I'd found the red & white striped demitasse cups at a consignment shop.  They knocked my socks off, so I HAD to try painting them!  Ascending spirals on vertical tubes -- just try painting those!  Many wipe-outs.  

Other "many wipe-outs" occurred while attempting to paint the wooden stand the orchid is sitting on.  I always work from life, never from a projected photograph, so the trouble happens when I stand and look, then step forward to paint, then step back to look -- and by standing in just a fraction of an inch differently, the angles all look different.  So it's a struggle.

Because I paint from life, some things rot before the painting is finished.  Waste not, want not: I painted the bowl of strawberries quickly as possible, then ate them.  And the cookies -- same way.  Painted them & ate them.  Then it was on to other things.

That orchid was wonderful.  It lasted for months.  I did 3 or 4 paintings of it before it finally dropped its flowers.  It's still alive here, but hasn't bloomed yet this summer.  Maybe it's mad at me?