Sunflower Bouquet 2

 

8x8.5in. oil on Trekell heart panel - sold

Hyvee tends to have some gorgeous sunflowers in stock. With sunflowers being my favorite flower, I wanted to get a bouquet and set up some still life reference photos. I ended up with two bouquet reference photos. I bought these super cute wood panels from Trekell - I really loved the outside border and had the idea to cover them in gold foil rather than paint it. I also love that the gold foil didn't transfer perfectly, I think it adds charm. I'm not sure if I would have painted the reservoir or not, but if I were to paint it, I think I would have used gold as well. I think black would be too distracting from the subject. This heart is part 4 out of 4 of my heart-shaped painting series.

Sunflower Bouquet 1

 

8x8.5in. oil on Trekell heart panel - sold

Hyvee tends to have some gorgeous sunflowers in stock. With sunflowers being my favorite flower, I wanted to get a bouquet and set up some still life reference photos. I ended up with two bouquet reference photos. I bought these super cute wood panels from Trekell - I really loved the outside border and had the idea to cover them in gold foil rather than paint it. I also love that the gold foil didn't transfer perfectly, I think it adds charm. I'm not sure if I would have painted the reservoir or not, but if I were to paint it, I think I would have used gold as well. I think black would be too distracting from the subject. This heart is part 3 out of 4 of my heart-shaped painting series.

3 Sunflowers Study

8x6in. oil on Ampersand Gessobord - sold

I'm currently working on some floral scenes for some cute heart-shaped panels I purchased from Trekell and I wanted to boost my floral skills. Naturally I turned to a Paint Coach Patreon tutorial for practice. My big plans for these heart-shaped panels are from a Valentine's Day bouquet I received as well as some flowers from Target. I definitely have some under my belt, but one of the areas of study I'd like to focus on are florals as a still life. I really like painting floral scenes and I hope that I do more in the future. Apologies for the grainy photo.

Sunflower

 

4x4in. oil on canvas panel - sold; click to purchase prints here; click to purchase stickers here

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!

Sunflowers & Roses

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

Valentine's Day is a big celebration in my house due to my birthday being the following day. My husband always gets me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and I wanted to try my hand at my first-ever still life set up painting session! It was really difficult but it's such an important exercise. Excited to do more of these! 6/52