Sunday's Challenge

Peonies.

Song - Sous le ciel de Paris 

Who would ever think of Peonies as being a challenge?

Not me....but on Sunday they were a big painting challenge.

Thursday in my Painting Class, I did a rough painting sketch from the two photo's below.  I am painting them on two canvas's so that they can be hung together or separately - a diptych.

I love Peonies and when I was in Paris last Spring, there were a lot of window displays with beautiful Peonies.

I ducked my head into one little floral shop where a woman was arranging this incredible Peony and Snowball flower display and in my very broken French, I asked politely "Bonjour Madame, Je voudrais un photo, s'il vous plait?".....and pointed at my camera, just in case my accent threw her off!

She was very sweet and responded in lovely English (phew)...."Yes you may take as many photo's as you would like."

Isn't this incredible?  Just gorgeous!

So I wandered around her shop snapping up lovely little vignettes of beautiful arrangements.  But mostly I wanted shots of her glorious front window.

As I began to paint them today, I got so thrown off because there are so many of them and I wanted each petal perfect!

But that's not really how I want to paint them...... 

I want lines in there for exciting energy and yet I want them to be "loose" but yet still look like Peonies.

So I decided to "grid" them with Photoshop Elements.

Mr. B gave me a funny look and said "flowers don't need to be gridded....they are flowers!"

I actually think I just needed to take a break from feeling frustrated.

Of course, I have never gridded anything in PE, just on paper with a pencil & ruler.  Thank goodness for "Google" and in no time I had my photo's all gridded and ready to go.

New skill learned!

Then I figured that I would blog about my adventurous Sunday revolving around Peonies. I am sure this is actually some kind of "P.A.T." (painting avoidance technique) because as soon as I post this, it's time to water the garden and pour myself a glass of wine!  Tomorrow is a new day.....

Peonies in my garden this morning.

I'll share a photo of the painting with you when it is finished.

"Self esteem comes from being faced with a challenge, whatever it might be, and meeting it."  ~ Linda Fields  (Art teacher)

And guess what I discovered when I went into the garden at 6:30?

......there was a funny color in the atmosphere.....oh my....the eclipse was happening.....call Mr. B......poke a hole in a sheet of paper

Mr. B holding the paper with a pinhole and the partial eclipse shining on the deck railing.

.....grab the camera....do mom & dad know this is happening.....yep, they were right on top of it.....cool !  Kind of a weird cool feeling.  Great long shadows too!

 

Wonder how it makes the birds and animals of the earth feel.

A double pin hole eclipse on a bird statue

 “You can turn off the sun, but I'm still gonna shine.” - Jason Mraz