30 in 30, #4 – Mum's the Word!

 Mum's the Word, 6"x6", oil on panel

The friendly yellow mums needed another chance, so I pulled out another black gessoed panel. Since I broke off one of the stems and my little green bottle was handy, the bottle got to appear in another painting. I can see myself going in circles here....

Lots of knife work in this one. Flowers with many petals like to be painted with a knife, so I am not going to argue. I'm not sure about the dark background with the dark leaves. I was thinking about Edgar Payne's "two-thirds dark and one-third light or two-thirds light and one-third dark" rule; I may have gotten carried away. 

rough sketches

sketch on panel