I can scarcely wait for morning ...

Each day I go to my studio full of joy; 


in the evening when obliged to stop 
because of darkness 

I can scarcely wait 
for the morning to come ...

ADOLFE-WILLIAM BOUGUEREAU (1825-1905)

Garden of Grace (commission) WORK-IN-PROGRESS

16 x 20 inches • oil on cradled GessobordTM

This garden painting is such a joy to work on! Today the person who commissioned it suggested the title, and I love it. 

Here are my new work-in-progress photos:

 This is where I left off last time, just starting to add the oil colors to the vivid acrylic underpainting.

Here I defined the mid-ground shrubs in front of the shrubs and vines in the background next to the house and framing the front door, but I don’t like how it looks like a big cupcake, almost right in the center of the painting ...

 ... so I changed the shape of it and softened some of the edges. Here also you can see that I’ve added the old bricks to the walkway, along with the moss growing in the in-between spaces of the bricks.

Working my way from background to foreground, adding suggestions of detail and texture to the different plantings as I go. I was just starting the purple irises in the center foreground when it just got too dim to see. I don’t like painting by artificial light, so reluctantly I stopped for the day.

As the quote at the top says, I can hardly wait to get back to this tomorrow...

Happy painting, everyone!