30 in 30, #5 – A Bowl Full of .... Mums

A Bowl Full of ... Mums,  5"x7", oil on panel

 My friend Leslie just gave me this darling rose bowl, which I filled with mums from Trader Joe's. Yes, they do have other kinds of flowers, and I even bought some freesias for another day. 

When I painted in watercolor, flowers were my favorite subject. Ad nauseum. I've painted very few flowers in oil, until this week. A petunia pot, a sunflower (everyone has to paint sunflowers), and then those stressful poinsettias. But now I seem to be all about the mums. It will pass soon, I'm sure of it. 

Part of this 30 in 30 challenge for me is to challenge myself to learn. I used some new color combinations in this one that I really enjoyed. That yummy blue is pthalo blue mixed with some cadmium red light and a bit of white. Some of the gray in the petals is pthalo green (yellow shade) with a bit of alizarin crimson. I don't usually use the pthalo colors (scary! intense! messy!) but this is a great opportunity to try something new.

no, I didn't paint the dots

oil sketch

after block-in, before the fun stuff