319 Crate and Barrel

Did you know there is only one Crate and Barrel store that sells flowers?  It is in Lincoln Park/Chicago and they have beautiful flowers!  This was inspired by a gorgeous bouquet of peach colored tulips and yellow-green roses with lots of greens.

318. Freshly Picked

317. Snapdragon Flip

316 Two Left

315 Off To The Side, Another View

Happy to report the banner for my garden club's booth at Art in Bloom is FINISHED and out of my hands.  I will post a picture of it at the Art Museum during Art in Bloom, so you can get the full effect.

314 Off To The Side

"Patience is a virtue" and it applies to me.  Standing back from a painting every few mintues helps to see the things that need correcting.  Having patience and making every stroke count is a practice I need to improve on.  Coincidentally, Daily Paintwork artist, Karen Margulis wrote about this in her blog today, and it really hit home.  The alcohol inks are helping me because you simply can't rush them.  You must wait to see what the INK decides to do, not what YOU want it to do. 

313 Roses Gone Wild

I can't believe I forgot to post this yesterday.  duh.

312. Red and Yellow Tulips

There is so much to learn about the alcohol inks.  I think this process will really help me to loosen up with my acrylics.  I never realized giving up control could be so much fun!  My favorite part of this painting includes the stems just below the rim of the bowl.  If anyone with alcohol ink experience has any advice to offer, I would be most appreciative.  Please leave a comment on this blog.

311. Spring Forward

Still experimenting with the alcohol inks and enjoying it.

310. Mixed Tulips

As an artist, it is always good to step out of my comfort zone and learn something new.  I am enjoying this creative learning process, the unpredictability of the medium, and how to "tame" it just a bit.  Alcohol inks give a vibrancy I can't achieve with acrylics and I love it. 

Regarding the giant banner for Art in Bloom, I have had many disappointments and little success in figuring out how to use the alcohol inks on a very large canvas.  Some things just aren't meant to be.  So I am painting the banner with acrylics and trying to mimic the likeness of the Garden 4 painting.  It is a giant effort and I will hope I can pull it off.

309. Garden 4

This is the fourth design and the one that will be used for my garden club's Art In Bloom banner.  I tried to incorporate elements we liked of some of the previous designs into this.  Painting the 72" x 52" canvas banner of this will be a big challenge. 

308. Garden 3

Another potential design for our Garden Club banner.

307. Garden 2

Still working on a design for my garden club and getting to know alcohol inks a little better. 

306. Garden 1

I am an active member of a garden club and have been working on a painting to use as our banner image for our participation in the Milwaukee Art Museum's Art In Bloom Marketplace, where we will sell our leaf vessels in late March, as well as enter our floral interpretation of an ancient art piece.  I find alcohol inks extremely difficult to work with because there is very little artist control, even less so than watercolor in my humble opinion.  I have painted many "pretty" abstracts with alcohol ink, but never a more controlled subject like this.  Although challenging, I am enjoying this very much.  More to come....

305. Confident

304. Shy

I was a little hesitant about painting the spider mums.  This is the third attempt.  In one other painting, they ended up as hydrangeas (ah, the freedom we have),  the other was gessod over.  I'm fairly happy with the way these turned out

303. Grateful

302. Flip

This is another little arrangement I made from Trader Joe's flowers.  I love the snapdragons and the little flip they create. 

301. Free Spirited

My sweet husband came home with two bundles of mixed flowers this week.  I decided to paint from my own little arrangements rather than the fussy arrangements from the floral department of the grocery store.  I enjoy that so much more.  This is a simple arrangement of white mums and pink alstroemera.

300. Fickle

I have come to the conclusion that I am not fond of the color purple.  Maybe it is because I look hideous in it and I have transferred my distaste to the palette.  I don't mind other people's use of purple, it's just that I don't like painting purple flowers.  This painting has gone through a variety of changes because I couldn't make up my mind, hence the title.