Taking a break from roses, I bought 3 sunflowers at the florist’s. This time of year you’re lucky to find any at all. I wail and gnash my teeth that all their leaves had been ripped away, but oh well! The vicissitudes of life.
Sometimes you just need to fake stuff. In reality, this was not painted on a sunny. summer afternoon at the lake. It was a dismal, gloomy. winter day and the setup was on a bare, plywood table in my dark, gloomy studio. Who the hell would want this? I invented a happy, bright sky, clouds and sparkly water. But still — something was missing. Frustrated, I set it aside several days and painted a wild, screaming-hot painting of twisty tulips. Then I spent a delightful afternoon (ha ha!) painting around the edges of 6 or 7 other paintings. This sad, little painting glared at me front the table as if saying Fix me, you fool!
I plucked a sunflower out of the vase & held it in front of the painting, testing out how it might look if it were laying on the table. It couldn’t hurt! Then I turned it around, facing the lake and decided OK! Do it! Faked the added shadow and added a few dropped petals to balance things out. It’s kind of fun to play God now and then.
