Ode to Summer 2020 – expressive floral painting.

Ode to Summer 2020 – remembering a special summer.

Ode to Summer reminds me that I am grateful for so much this year.

Everyone I love is healthy. First and foremost, I am thankful each and every day that family and friends are safe so far from this virus.

Second, 2020 is a year filled with commissions. In spite of the pandemic, (or maybe because of it) people have decided this was the year to have their pets painted. As a result, I have met so many wonderful people in person, while keeping our distance. So take THAT Covid 19!

I am grateful for every client who chose me to paint their adorable fur babies, or who commissioned me to paint a memorial portrait as a gift for a friend. I know the pain of losing a beloved pet. (Mopsy 2005, Chico 2018). Our pets are important, much loved members of our families.

Since I am in the middle of getting ready for a move to another home, my commissioned paintings have slowed down so I can spend more time packing.

Next year already promises to be busier than this year and I will add your name to my waiting list if you would like your little friend painted by me.

I have one commissioned cat to finish and some wood slices that were already in the works and these should be completed before Christmas. My art room will be packed last and I hope to get painting again by mid November in my new studio.

And that brings me to my final point.

Ode to Summer brings to mind the inspiring gardens I leave behind in this, our home for the last 28 years.

So Ode to Summer is that painting that will evoke many special memories as the years go by.

Ode to Summer is a do over.

I wrote in a previous post, The Best Paintings are the Do Overs, that the best paintings I have completed for my own home started out as failures.

Ode to Summer is full of texture from the previous painting. Many wonderful layers of colour give it both depth and a dreamy, hazy quality much like early morning fog in my summer flower beds.

Using a mix of three colours of Golden Heavy Body acrylics plus white, dabs of FW acrylics to bump up the brightness, a palette knife, along with fingers here and there, I kept working this floral painting until I brought it to a point where I felt it was done and I could add nothing else to it.

I didn't really have a plan when I started. The background texture suggested flowers and leaves as I moved around the 20 x 20 canvas.

This style is one I hope to explore more fully with time and new art supplies.

Cheers from the Art Room.