Don't Dilly Dally Around With Flowers

Greenhouses fill my head with visions of paintings. Colors of all hues call out to me filling my head with possibilities. I want to rush to the studio and begin reaching for those impossible colors that only nature can create. I can deceive people into believing my paintings have those colors by pushing the colors that surround the flowers on my canvas.

Flowers present a special challenge for me. Besides the colors, flowers are so delicate, requiring thoughtful brushwork - fitting my style of painting into capturing their softness. Every subject requires something different out of us, drawing, mixing colors, knowing when to use colors straight from the tub...

I tell my students, not to dilly dally around, flowers may look to be holding still but they are growing as we paint and picked ones only last so long.