Dark Red Geranium

"Dark Red Geranium" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

Last year I remembered seeing some very deep red geraniums.  All I had here were the brigher, more orange-red varieties.  I looked at every plant nursery around before I finally found a plant up in Harbor Springs.  I save geraniums from year to year, keeping them in pots on the windowsills in my studio.  

I'm enjoying painting geraniums!  At first they were rather intimidating.  For the first portion of the painting, it looks very discouraging -- just colored blobs!  It's the last couple minutes, though, with the little details, that turn it into something that "actually looks like something"!

Corn Poppies

 "Corn Poppy #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Corn Poppy #2" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

 "Corn Poppy #3" -- oil on canvas 6x6" -- Margie Guyot

I love these poppies!  They're not the big Oriental variety -- the naughty little rabbits gnawed all the buds off those.  But somehow the rabbits didn't notice these.  So I thought they'd be a hoot to paint.  I realized that only have 2 shades of red on my palette wasn't enough.  Some colors just can't be mixed.  I did these using cadmium red light (an orange-red) and alizarin crimson (deep bluish-red).  It was challenging!  But I did order 5 new shades of red.  Stay tuned!