#8 in a series of ten oil paintings called “The Northwestern Flowers in Bottles Series.”
This was one of the more challenging flowers to paint in this series. Partly from the complexity of the individual flower buds, but more from the fact that my photo did not have enough contrast to really see the shape of each blossom.
I felt like I was going to go blind from the strain I was putting on my eyes. Although, it’s amazing what your eyes can see when really forced to work. This painting is an amplified version of my reference photo, but I think it captures the beauty of the real flower that the film had lost.
The bottle was one I found in my kitchen when I scoured our house looking for unique containers to hold each of the different flowers… it actually contained olive oil and was dark green. I changed the color to blue to pull out the same blue I had used in the shadow areas of the flower. Plus, I just thought that a blue bottle would be a nice contrast to the other bottles in this series.
