White Poinsettias

"White Poinsettias" -- oil on canvas 36x36" -- Margie Guyot

I love painting poinsettias!  Every year about this time, I yearn to find them for sale again.  I live in a rural area in NW Michigan and about the only place you can find them is in the grocery store.  Last year when they had poinsettias "3 for $10", I snapped some up.  Red, white, pink -- I love them all!  For fun, I thought it would be an interesting challenge to paint white poinsettias on a white tablecloth.  Which I did last year.  But there was something that troubled me about the painting.  It looked too blah!

So I set it up on the easel last week and every time I'd walk by, I'd look at it, trying to imagine how to "fix" it.  Finally I got the inspiration to darken the background and paint in a box of antique ornaments.  I have lots of old ornaments (of course you'd know I love old, weird things!).  I liked the way the ornaments looked IN the box, so I painted the whole thing, as-is.  Hard?  Of yes, of course it was hard!  But it was a cold, rainy, dreary week and it was that or clean closets.  

I really like the look of the box of ornaments.  I think I'll be doing another big still life with several boxes of ornaments, maybe a couple small poinsettias, a plate of cookies -- and.....?