Orange Rose

"Orange Rose #1" -- oil on canvas 6x6"

While doing the cupcake series, I began thinking of starting a series of flower paintings.  Roses are tough to paint!  All those petals!  But I reasoned that if I could slug it out with the frosting swirls and paper cups, surely I could figure out roses.  

I'd gone to the grocery store yesterday in Elk Rapids to look for more interesting donuts.  Alas, they all looked boring!  Then I spied bunches of multi-colored roses.  Ahhhhh!  That would be it!  

Had to hold this one in my left hand, looking directly down on it, while painting with my right hand.  And while Miss America (a very needy cat of mine) pawed insistently on my leg, begging to be held.  Oh, for a 3rd arm!  

I really loved this rose.  The center was darker than the outer petals.  It was an overcast day (to put it mildly!).  We'd had heavy rains and high winds and the power was out for 4 hours.  Creeks flooding, plagues, raining frogs....  Ooops -- sorry.... not quite that bad.  With now power, I had to choose between sweeping the floor, sorting paperwork, shoveling out the chicken coop -- or painting.  Easy choice!

Fiesta!

"Fiesta!" -- oil on canvas -- 40x60" -- Margie Guyot

Last summer I snagged this Mexican sombrero at a yard sale in Glen Arbor.  I just knew it would end up in a painting.  It's a velvety-red, trimmed in gold and silver, with silver sequins.  Very heavy -- I don't know how the guys can stand to wear them!

With the red sombrero as a starting point, I knew I wanted this still life to have a red-green theme.  Years ago I realized that the paintings that seemed to "sing" to me, when I'd walk into a gallery, were the ones that made a big use of the complementary colors.  So I try to do that -- when I think of it.  

Aren't those cool pumpkins?  I'd bought them earlier this fall from 2 young boys in Elk Rapids.  I'd just used the striped one in a still life a couple weeks ago and thought I'd like to use it again -- before it rots.  The vintage, reindeer glasses were found in an antique store up in Pellston.  Green-striped afghan from a resale shop in Ellsworth.  It's just endless -- the possibilities from all kinds of junk!

Every year I bring my geraniums inside and set them on the studio windowsill.  Why buy new?  Some of them are 5 years old.  

What to put in the space under the table?  It's always a question nagging me.  This time I painted a portrait of "Miss America", one of my studio cats.  She (really a he!) was named for her pretty, little face.  I had to hold her in the crook of my left arm, baby doll style, to get a good look at her face while I painted.