A New Beginning-Artichokes

Purple Artichokes 15X22

I've been wanting to paint these fabulous purple artichokes since I took the picture of them at an Oregon farmers market last fall. This may be one of those paintings that I will work on over the summer, building the composition and the colors as I go along. Right now it's very low key, values not more than a five in a one to ten scale. I guess I'm playing it safe, as I usually do, sort of timid to let the values get out of control. On the other hand, I love to build the colors up and watch the painting emerge out of the pale washes.

Spring

Ink Iris

I finally got a taste of a non-tropical spring while visiting our daughter in Portland, Oregon. She had beautiful iris in her garden that were begging to be sketched. I did this one with an Elegant Writer, a calligraphy pen that is not permanent. When you touch water to it you can get lovely shading and even some variation in color.

While we were there we went to the Portland Rose Garden and even though most of the roses were not quite ready to bloom, there were a few early ones that were stunning. With all the photos I took I'll have a lot of references to work with.