oil painting

The weather’s always perfect for creating any kind of flower paintings down here in the South. Seems like I’ve been enjoying painting still life pieces a lot lately. Turns out, I’m going to have plenty of flowers and others colorful objects to capture on canvas.

My Experience Creating A Flower Painting For A Local Group

Sometimes a fresh approach to subject matter and a very free and easy style is just what the doctor ordered. I did this as a flower painting demo for our local garden club in Meridian, MS.

Being a garden club meeting, there was no shortage of beautiful flowers for inspiration. This was an acrylic on panel, and I approached this painting at first like I would a watercolor; very loose and fresh with lots of dripping paint . This is a perfect style for this kind of subject. I used Golden acrylics, and Grumbacher hog bristol brushes. I had a total time of 30 minuets to complete my demo and that’s it!

Was That Enough Time To Paint?!?!? 

There is a certain amount of energy that must flow into a painting to give it that feeling of life that’s so important. I did not want it to have a labored look. The last thing I want any of my still lifes to look is “still”!

So rather than carefully approaching the canvas, I charged at it with paint flying and brushwork with reckless abandon!! I find this type of start gives me a mind set that insures that the rest of the painting with have the same energy about it.

Rather than just creating a visual inventory, I remembered what my mentors like Emile Gruppe would tell me, “painting should show the artist emotions!” This kind of advise has been a treasure to me for my 63 years of being a painter. If 10 artist painted the same subject in a perfect photographic style, how could you tell who’s painting was who’s?  They would all look alike. So I have always loved the impasto, rich, loose style of painting, much better than the labored “correct” visual inventory of painting.

A Still Life Demo A Success

At the end of the still life flower painting demo, someone decided to pay me the ultimate compliment, and bought it wet off the easel!  This is always a great feeling to an artist, that there was a “shock of recognition” for someone, and they loved it enough to add to their collection. It’s a great feeling to finish a piece and have someone really enjoy it just as much as you do.

The profession of an artist can be a very lonely one. If painting for a living one cannot afford to wait for inspiration, but must find a way to manufacture the feelings necessary to start a project. This was not the case in this painting, and was a total joy from the first brush stroke , to my signing of this work.

My Current Flower Painting Inventory 

Due to the demand of original flower watercolors and oil paintings, it’s rare for me to have any in stock. However, I currently have a few pieces that I’ve just added to the store. Since I’m also known for my landscape artwork, I tend to create lots of pieces with flowers in them. I created a sunflower landscape painting where I captured the entire shot of a sunflower field done in thick oil paint. This piece is an oil on panel that’s been a part of my personal collection for some time. It’s actually my favorite rose painting that I’ve created so far. In addition to that, I have a flower and lemons watercolor piece that’s available for purchase. Of course I have other pieces that have flowers in them but they were not created in a still life painting setting. Should you have a personal request, I frequently create commissioned pieces. Don’t hesitate to contact me about getting a custom piece created.