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.....? 

White Poinsettias

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

I'm a notorious poinsettia-killer.  I don't know why they die so quickly for me.  So I had to move FAST and paint these in a hurry!  This is another type of painting where it's important to control one's panic.  So many leaves!  So easy to get lost and quit in frustration.  It must be all the years on the assembly line at Ford that has taught me to be patient and to "keep on going".  

I love a good, mussed-up tablecloth!  I used to avoid folds and wrinkles in fabric; now I find them addictive.  Hey -- up north, here in the "hinterlands" -- what else is there to do?  Housework?  Ach.  Better to paint.  

At the end of each painting session I had to remove the poinsettias.  There are 2 young cats in my studio that love to rip apart anything "dangly".  And it goes without saying that each night the kitties took great pains to totally rearrange the fabric.  Oh well -- they're adorable.  I have to forgive them.

Those glass ornaments are old as God.  They were old when I was a kid, back in Iowa.  The strand of colored lights was added at the end.  I'm still not entirely sure this painting is finished.  Calling it done for now.