Pansies

“Purple Pansies”, ©Jill Rosoff 2010, 6″ x 11 3/4″, framed, $185.00

I picked up a pansy plant last spring as a subject for the budding (pun coincidental) artists that are in my watercolor workshops.  I forgot to take it with me, so there it was waiting for me on my painting table when I got home.  I started a painting of it back then, blocking in the flowers before they bloomed and faded.  And then the painting got buried under other paintings I was working on.

Last week I unearthed the painting and started working on it once more.  Since I’d only blocked in the flowers, it was interesting to see where the painting would go since the ‘model’ had long since been planted in my garden.  The blossoms had been elucidated in a wet-on-wet technique.  I set them onto a patterned background done in drybrush.  An interesting juxtaposition, yes?

Poppy fields

“Field of Poppies” ©Jill Rosoff 2010. 12″ x 6″, $225.00, framed

A family friend sent me a photo of a poppy field with a note that said she it made her think of my paintings.  Such a sweet gift!  It occurred to me as I looked at it how I often focus on a bouquet or a small group of flowers, almost a portrait of the flowers.  This composition, though, is the whole field of flowers.  The focus is at the level of the poppy blossoms. In the foreground you see more of the world in between each blossom: the the leaves, stems and buds and the ground.  Then as they recede further and further away, the poppy blossoms close in, more and more close together, so at the horizon line almost all you see are the flowers, and not so much of the undergrowth.  Its a natural and a lovely progression.

Actually, Caroline, who sent me the photo that spurred all of this, was also one of the two winners of the free set of notecards early this past summer! Grande merci, Caro!