Inside the Heart of a Geranium

This is one of a series of flower paintings I have been working on. It is smaller than I normally paint 12x16, but goes into the depth of the flower. I love geraniums, but find them diffiult to paint. This year I had some wonderful colored ones on my terrace outside my studio, so decided to

focus on the closeup. You want to get into them, to see what they are made of, not just the full heads, which are so beautiful.

Please see the post on Georgia O'keeffe's view of painting flower, May 2.

Here I have tried to do what she suggested, paint it big and look deep inside.

Another Beach Scene, Venice, Florida

Last Tuesday our Plein Air Group went to Service Beach Park, Venice, Florida. We have been there several times, but each time is a new adventure. This time we went into the dunes to paint looking out through the grasses. The day was not sunny, but the colors were very interesting. One of the women said that she saw more colors that day than she ever had before at that location. So no matter what the weather, it pays to go out to paint, in this case pastel.

Paintings from Sleeping Turtle Preserve

Our pastel plein air class recently went to Sleeping Turtle Preserve in Venice, Florida for two sessions. These were the pastels that I did on those days. The preserve is along the Myakka River and has nice hiking trails and many live oaks and palm trees as well as luscious greenery in the trees. The last picture is of these gorgeous bromilides in the trees. At least that is what I was told they were, anyway, that morning the sun just shown through them like gold. It is a very overwhelming place to paint, and this is the third time I have tried to paint there. The first was a total disappointment, but these are not too bad. I have not used pastels for 40 years so this is a new learning experience. Hope you enjoy them.