Stopping in an interesting place ...

Oak Tree and Daffodils • ©2012 by Karen Mathison Schmidt
6 x 6 inches • oil on archival, museum quality Gessobord
gloss varnish for UV protection • unframed

$95   PURCHASE FROM MY eBAY STORE

I racked my brain trying to come up with a less literal title for this, but finally decided to let the painting speak for itself. So, Oak Tree and Daffodils it is!

When I started this painting a couple of days ago, the daffodil leaves had just shot up everywhere, but no sign of blossoms. Today, after a couple of stormy, rainy days there are yellow buds just coming open everywhere ... in a couple more days these beauties will be busting out all over!

Here are the work-in-progress photos:

First, the underpainting in acrylic glazes of fuschia, 

cadmium yellow light, phthalo blue.

Next, I start to add the oil colors, leaving generous gaps 

for those bright undercolors to show through.

Here it is, almost finished ... I just need to add the foreground daffodil blossoms.

I love the effect of adding in a few random little suggestive dots indicating single flowers apart from the little groups ... I was having so much fun doing it I really had to make an effort to make them look totally random and not to overdo it.

And ... the finished painting. I was having so much fun with this one that I kind of had to remind myself to coast to a stop, keeping in mind that Paul Gardner quote, “A painting is never finished - it just stops in interesting places.”