Yellow Shawl and Glads

"Yellow Shawl and Glads" -- oil on canvas 36x36" -- Margie Guyot

This is the yellow silk shawl I'd bought at Stonehege Gardens.  On the way home from buying it, I stopped in at Glen's grocery store, looking like a crazy woman in my new sparkly orange, dangling earrings, black T-shirt and green plaid man's shirt.  I'd been plein air painting with Jordan River Arts Club that morning and had completely forgotten how I was dressed. 

Wandering through Glen's, I spied these yellow gladiolas.  Aha! Perfect companions for the yellow shawl!  As soon as I got home, I set up this still life.  Because of the complexity of the shawl, there was no need to add more components.

From past experience, I knew not to waste time.  Those glads had to be painted -- and pronto!  It was agonizing.  Flowers are always a struggle (as is everything else)!  One would hope the fairies would magically paint them for me, but so far I haven't been so lucky. 

A few years ago I took a painting class with a certain artist (name withheld) and she took an immediate dislike to me.  I have no idea why.  We were painting landscapes, which I hadn't expected, as she was a surreal artist.  I felt a little disappointed, but heck -- as long as we were out there, in the beautiful Rockies, by a stream, I figured I might as well just enjoy it.  "Obviously this comes easy to you!" she snapped, during a critique. 

"No, it's hard!" I replied.  I look at a scene and think holy crap -- this is going to be tough!  But I just plug along, figuring things out as I go.  Kind of like an algebra test.  And don't ask me anything about algebra.  I remember absolutely nothing.

So that's how I paint.  Just plug along, figuring things out as I go.  I knew to paint the gladiolas first, as they would poop out in a day or so.  Sometimes I'll finish painting one bloom, then wander outside to pull a few handfuls of weeds, fantasizing that all the blooms would paint themselves in my absence.  So far, no luck at that.  But eventually I do get them all done. 

The shawl was a pain to do, too.  The fairies were no help.  I do try to stick with it, though, as I usually am sick of looking at a painting after about a week.  To save myself further agony, I try to work quickly, so it'll be done in a week or less. 

Did you ever think artists went through such agony?