Blue Water Lily and Bee - Oil Painting Work In Progress

"One day's happiness often predicts the next day's creativity."  -  Teresa Amabile

Blue Water Lily and Bee

Photograph by Carol Reynolds

I posted this photograph of a blue water lily previously, but wanted to show it again to give you a better idea where I am going with the oil painting in progress from this reference photo.  Below is the painting as it stands now.

Work in Progress

9" x 12" oil on gallery wrap canvas

I made some changes, not going by the reference photograph exactly.   Please keep in mind this is a beginning stage and that much work needs to be done.   

Would you like to see what happiness looks like?   Look below !

This is my grandson, Dash, right after turning 9 months old the end of March; the photo was taken the beginning of  April.  What a happy fellow !  This is my only grandchild that is living in Hawaii; my others are all on the mainland USA.

Many of you have probably read this quote or heard it spoken:  "Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."  - Joseph Addison.

That certainly holds true where children and grandchildren are concerned, but it can involve many things: first and foremost of spiritual things and the hope of eternity.   "Happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it."    -  Aristotle

Would you like to see a happy cat?  Below is my calico cat, Lika.

This photograph was taken 3 days ago.   Did you notice the heart shape coloration on Lika?  She has another "heart" on her left shoulder which obviously is not showing in this photo.   Guess that means she is double-hearted.    She is truly full of mischief  but she can be very lovey dovey as well.

The cactus in the photo only blooms once a year, as a rule, and it bloomed first in January this year and again in April.   That was a nice unexpected  treat. !!

  

This is a close-up shot of the salmon and white cactus blossoms. I hope to paint from this photo or from another close-up shot of it as I have never painted a Christmas cactus.  I have had this plant about 3 years.

Thank you for visiting my blog !

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com

My Website

Best White Oil Paint, Natural Pigments, Hawaiian Moorhen, And My Studio Assistant

"The best way to finish a painting is to start a new one." - Sylvio Gagnon

"Making Ripples" (Hawaiian Moorhen)

24" x 24" Acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

Available

The above acrylic painting of the Hawaiian Moorhen was from a reference photo of mine taken at Hamakua Marsh in Kailua on Oahu, Hawaii.   It is not what I have been working on lately; I had hoped to finish a landscape this past Saturday but, alas, it was not to be.   Sundays I do not paint at all, and today life interfered beginning with needing maintenance help in my kitchen.   I spent some time improving my website and see below for my studio assistant who needed me to make a trip today to go buy her some food.

See her licking her chops !  This is Lika on my patio.  We are great buddies!  But I digress.

I recently discovered that Gamblin Artist Oil Colors has a new white called "Flake White Replacement".  It is true to the properties of the old flake white but does not contain the lead. This replacement white is also more permanent than the old lead laden flake white, which I used many many years ago.  Nowadays, for the most part, I use Weber's Permalba White which is a mixture of Titanium and Zinc whites; that combination of Zinc and Titanium is, or has been, the best white.  But I intend to purchase Gamblin's Flake White Replacement soon as well as another new white they have called Warm White which is a mixture of Benaimidazolone Orange, Hansa Yellow, Titanium White, and Zinc White.   I realize I can make my own mixture of warm white with paint already on hand, but I like to try new things and I like to save time.   

I made a post here some time back about Natural Pigments (click here) to view.   I will not repeat the old information given there, other than to say some artists (despite it being dangerous and toxic) might still want to purchase lead white paints.   Natural Pigments paints website carries more than one kind of lead white; their paints are called Rublev Colours and they come in watercolors as well as oils.   They are made of natural and historical pigments used by the old masters and there are no additives to the paint like fillers, driers, or stabilizers; simply single pigment colors and binders.  I intend to purchase some of their paints as well.  

Back to finishing my landscape tomorrow !  It is really coming along great; just need to adjust some of the greens and add the foreground cattails.  I tend to paint slow lately and, although I love impressionistic work, I work in a more realistic, time-consuming manner.  I am sure he must have been referring to the French Impressionists when Richard Boyle said, "To the impressionist, the work was finished, no matter how casual the execution, when the idea was completely realized on the canvas."   And that is okay, but it is not my way of working.  I will admit, though, to the truth of what Harley Brown has said, "The painting is always finished before the artist thinks it is."

Lika is sound asleep now beside me, and I need to be a copycat and do the same.  

My Website

reynoldsrenditions@gmail.com