Sunflowers – Chellis Farm

A couple days ago we had a 4 1/2 rainfall – a real gully-washer. Then today the sun came out in full glory. I was chomping at the bit to get out and paint! I’d been eyeing this beautiful garden of sunflowers for several weeks. Luckily, the kind farmer woman allowed me to set up and paint there. She said these sunflowers re-seed themselves every year. And they’re beautiful! Take that, expensive F1 hybrids!

One thing that caught my eye was the interesting lines of mud “runways” left by the rainstorm. I always try to lay in the composition lines first thing, and today that included the mud flow patterns. Here’s how things looked after about 20 minutes. Hideous, of course. But things usually come together right at the end. Magic! As I often say, the key to making a successful painting is learning how to control your panic!

Two pairs of scarecrows kept the crows from pecking my eyeballs out as I painted….

I think all the crows were busy at their own picnic about a mile away. Some delicious morsel was out on the road and the crows and vultures – even an eagle – were having quite a feast:

An eagle here?

So that’s why I love plein air painting — all kinds of interesting things going on! Sitting in a studio, copying from a photo? Why, that’s just a job…..