Another Hydrangea Finished

I have added some veins to the flowers, the stem and a shadow.

I have done the shadow beneath in two stages, to be able to enhance the gold.
Well, it's done, and to its credit, I like it better than my earlier attempts at hydrangeas [below]. I like the idea of the starkness against a soft, almost-not-there background. I will have to play with this concept a bit more ...

The above two paintings were done about a year ago.

What I really want to paint are some thoughts and feelings about Rio de Janeiro.  I have never been further south than Mexico, but I love the Brazilian culture - music especially. A few nights ago, I watched Black Orpheus - a great old movie. And I have been doing a lot of reading and researching on the recent turmoil concerning the "gentrification" of the favelas. I have google-mapped as far into the favelas as the map permits, and have scrounged for pictures all over the net. Now I must mull over images and ideas to come up with some work expressing how I feel about all of it.

Thank you for dropping by - hope you enjoyed the visit. And your comments and critiques are always welcome.

Trying to Be a Bit More Creative ...

This is a LONG way from any sort of finish, but it gives you an idea of the direction I'd like to take it. I'll probably do a few of these in the smaller format [ 11 x 8 in. ] to get a feel for the work. I am trying to express my feeling about Vancouver - the mountains, the ocean, a warm summer evening, screaming over the Burrard Street Bridge in my TR6. Ah, the joys of youth. I liked, no loved, Vancouver twenty years ago, before the huge influx of overseas money. It still felt like you could almost know the entire city and everybody in it [or a friend of theirs]. It's become too big, too wealthy, too ostentatious, too self-absorbed ...  I could go on, but suffice to say that it has become the 2nd most expensive city in which to live, right after Hong Kong. So I am trying to re-capture the old, beautiful Vancouver.

I am using an old 1930's photo as reference.

More inspiration for a later painting - my niece, Paulina. I'm thinking of doing a  Mona Lisa take-off.

My nephew, Julian, definitely an Elizabethan Romeo.


As always I love to hear from you!