Sunflowers in the sand

Sunflowers in the sand 8 x 10" acrylic on canvas on board.

On Thursday I brought home several bunches of grocery store flowers with the intention of painting a large and loose red and yellow floral painting. I worked all day Friday on it and it was a mess. I painted, I scraped, I painted, I scraped, you get the picture. I couldn't get the background color right and the day ended in frustration and myself being covered in oil paint. On Saturday I decided to simplify. I got a smaller canvas, I used acrylic paint and focused on just two of the flowers. I was bound and determined to get my money's worth out of these flowers. Because I felt my waterfront pictures held promise I decided to put the Gulf of Mexico in the background. Turquoise and yellow-orange are always a nice color harmony. I did a quick under painting with a brush and then got out the palette knife. I added Golden's soft gel medium to the paint to extend it and to help with the impasto properties.

P.S.

In the floral set up picture in the lower right hand corner you can see some ceramic buttons I am working on. I don't know if they will ever get finished they are such a pain. (I don't know what possessed me to try and make buttons.) I had to stick the one poor sunflower back in the jar. It did not like being out of water. Tom, can you see your clock in the background?