coming to form | The Contented Crafter

2:1 Easel 1 June

2:2

2:3

2:4

2:5

2:6a

2:6b

2:7

As I’d arrived at form so abruptly – and quite unexpectedly – it was time to bring some life to the daisies.

I should say a little something about daisies.

They are arguably my favourite flower. I love all manner of daisies from the minute daisy that intrudes itself into immaculate lawns, to the slightly bigger erigeron that spreads wantonly given half a chance, through wonderful marguerites to the fabulous shasta. I love their bright cheerfulness, they have no pretensions, no super breeding – they are just plain old daisies, the flowers of the fields. They always make me happy. They keep on flowering, they keep coming back they keep waving their sun-filled centres about in garden or meadow or by roadside and they remind me that just being who you are is enough.

My friend Bekki, who appears in the comments here as a little knitted woolly lamb published a lovely photo on her blog a week or two ago of a field of ox-eye daisies and that picture has stayed with me through our dim, cold mid-wintery days. I had also painted a daisy picture in my art journal recently and I wanted to do something more with that idea – with hindsight, I see it has influenced steps on this painting prior to the appearance of the flowers hdr

So, it was time to set to work.

Spotify randomly delivered me Diana Krall and Norah Jones today – separately and at their best, thereby proving to me that inanimate objects can know exactly what is required to get the job done!

They were followed by one of my favourite Van Morrison tracks

With small dabs of yellow, green and orange on the palette I lightly played about with beginnings and endings, light and shade to bring more shape and form into the daisies.

I used my trusty charcoal stick, sketching lightly where stems and leaves and buds might go……….

hdr