Sunny Flowers on a Rainy Day

As I wait for this new still life to dry, get a coat of varnish and then be better photographed, here it is on the easel. The flowers are Rudbeckia, grown and sold at our local farm shop. They are quite a structural flower and I didn’t have to worry about getting a sense of translucency in the petals, which are kind of solid in appearance.

The brown paper bag became the source of some frustration and a running joke, when every day I came into the studio to find that someone had obviously not recognised my subjects as an arrangement for a still life painting, and had thrown my bag away as rubbish three days on the trot. In the end I marked it’s position and put it somewhere safe over night.

The piece is called “Cruel Summer” because the cheerful, sunshine appearance of the flowers has been in opposition to cool, dark summer days that saw a lot of rain while I was painting. It’s also been a stressful time for me on a personal level. Sick dogs, a family bereavement; in short, the stuff of life.