Gardenia Tree

Gardenia Tree, 5x7" o/c, plein air, ©Diane Mannion

Our Garden

Painted in our garden this morning where I grow flowers to paint and John grows things to eat.  Surrounded by tubs of potatoes, rosemary, and Thai basil, I set up my easel in the sun near my gardenia tree.  Painted fast and jumped around while red ants nipped at my ankles.  Field studies are never easy, even in your own backyard.

 Experimented with burnt sienna acrylic for the drawing stage while wearing sunglasses.  No need to see color at this stage, just composition.  And inspired by reading how another artist worked, I positioned a viewfinder and attempted to work site-size.  Didn't work for me, at least with this study.  I like to pull things in from outside the viewing frame area, leave things out, and make stuff up. It's too much fun pushing paint around the way I want it to be.  Perhaps, if I had more patience and wanted to make a "photographic" copy of what I was looking at...  Anyway, had to finish before the Floridian sun burned a hole in my head.  Note to self: Paint in the shade or set up an umbrella!