Daffodils in a Blue Vase
2011 | 11 x 14 | oil on canvas | private collection

Daffodils wave their cheery little faces at us everywhere here in Southwest Washington, even if the rain keeps coming down. Allan loves daffodils, so I cut some and put them into a cobalt blue vase on our dining room table. After contemplating them for a week or so, I finally decide to paint them. Focusing solely on the paint helped relax and center me, and I forgot about everything else.

 If you are having a rainy day, I hope this yellow, blue and green composition helps cheer you up. It did me! 

Here’s the actual set up, although this is in the dining room, and I painted in my studio, so much of it was done from memory.

Here are the painting stages, shot with my iPhone under flourescent daylight, so there’s some shift in color. But you can see the progression.

Initial block in with Permanent Magenta and Cobalt Blue mixed with thinner on a canvas I’d pre-gessoed and sanded smooth.

Starting to block in basic color shapes. Note: the green looks way greener here than it actually was. Blame the iPhone!

Finished block in. From here I refined the colors and added detail, resulting in the finished painting, above.