9×12 Gesso Gessoed Panel

VanGogh said “there is no blue without orange and without yellow”

VanGogh Inspired Sunflowers by Winifred

It’s no secret  – I love sunflowers and love to paint them.  My fresh bouquet was on it’s last leg.  I knew I had to do something immediately – they wouldn’t last through a painting, so I photographed them.  I proceeded to paint a perfectly decent painting, looked at it and found it “so boring”.  Then I thought of Van Gogh’s sunflowers which  were never boring.  I knew, I couldn’t use one of his sunflowers paintings even as a general reference because if I did I would paint what I saw. While that is great for practice, it was not my mission –  I am eternally searching for my artistic voice!! I did refresh myself on some of his other bouquets, however.  Do you know how amazing his paintings are!! Of course you do.

I decided to change my colors from the beige and brown and gold – to the above.  I remembered his quote. Each step was scary – the potential to really screw up was big – so, I simply envisioned what I wanted to create and proceeded boldly but cautiously.  I’m pretty satisfied with the result. I will change things a bit. I always do, once I sit with a painting for a while – the flaws just jump out so clearly.

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