Mirabilis Jalapa

4x4in. oil on canvas panel - sold

Full disclosure: these flowers may not be Mirabilis Jalapa but Google gave me a very similar image/article result that looked identical to the reference photo that I took and I'm going with it. That being said, I loved the pinks, purples and blues that made up the petals and I really like the pops of orange that stand out against the petals. I also wanted to try out making a more "blurred" background so I really pushed the brushstrokes in the background to give them less of a form feel and more of a feeling of other foliage behind these three flowers. This is the third and final painting in my series of testing out the different Gamvar varnishes, and this painting is varnished with the "matte varnish" - another full disclosure: I don't really like this varnish. I felt that it really dulled everything out and washed out the darker values that I had in the background compared to the flowers in the foreground, making them appear to be very similar in value. That being said, I'm still glad that I tried it out to see what it looks like - it even gives me vibes of those old 90's tween novel covers.

Hibiscus

4x4in. oil on canvas panel - click to purchase here

My fiancé's grandmother's house has a border of hibiscus bushes and every year these beautiful white hibiscus flowers bloom. One day I caught sight of these flowers and fell in love with the way the warm sunlight shown on them and even shown through the petals. This is my second painting out of three to test out the three Gamvar varnishes, and this painting is varnished with the "satin varnish" - I like that this varnish causes less glare than the high gloss, but I find that it doesn't really punch up the colors and values like the high-gloss picture varnish does. It also leans more matte than the high gloss, so maybe in the future I will test out mixing half-gloss and half-satin mixtures.

Sunflower

 

4x4in. oil on canvas panel - sold

Here in Nebraska you can find plenty of wild sunflower bushes everywhere in the months of August and September. There was a bush growing near my apartment complex and I just had to take some reference photos of them! There were so many birds and bees enjoying the flowers and the yellow petals looked so striking against the stark blue of the Midwest sky. I wanted to test out the three different Gamvar varnishes and I thought a floral series would be a nice change. This painting is varnished with the "picture varnish" - I like the high gloss look, just not too easy for a beginner like me to photograph. I think sunflowers may be my favorite flower!

Lil Pun

7x5in. oil on canvas panel - click to purchase here

I picked up the most adorable mini pumpkin at Target earlier in the season and knew I wanted to paint it as a still life. Orange is absolutely my favorite color and I love the contrast between the orange body and the blue surface. This time I set up my still life on my desk that can turn into a standing desk and it really made it easy for me to stand up and paint. I recorded a process video and posted a minute-long version of it on my Instagram and Tik Tok! 9/52

Zack

8x8in. oil on Blick Premier Artist's Panel - click to purchase here

And here is part 2 of today's 2-parter post! On Halloween my fiancé and I carved pumpkins and I loved them so much I just HAD to paint them! These two paintings were really tough, but I'm glad that I previously painted the "Radiant Pumpkin" painting as prep work for these two paintings. My fiancé's pumpkin was named Zack and when I went to paint him I put 3 candles in him this time, resulting in a much brighter pumpkin. I will note that editing this photo to look as close to the painting as possible was easier than the "Howie" photo.

Howie

8x8in. oil on Blick Premier Artist's Panel - click to purchase here

Today's post is a 2-parter! On Halloween my fiancé and I carved pumpkins and I loved them so much I just HAD to paint them! These two paintings were really tough, but I'm glad that I previously painted the "Radiant Pumpkin" painting as prep work for these two paintings. My pumpkin was named Howie and when I went to paint him I only put 1 candle in him. I will note that it was pretty difficult to edit this photo to look as close to the painting as possible.