Sunflower Painting #6

'Sunflower Painting 6' 6x6 pastel

Almost a week of sunflowers and I feel like I am just getting started. This is so much fun. Next week I will get a bit more out of the box so stay tuned. Today's sunflower is on Wallis Belgian mist with no underpainting.

Sunflower Painting #5

'Sunflower #5' 6x6 pastel ©Karen Margulis

For today's painting I chose another palette inspired by a painting in my Matisse book. I don't plan on painting all of my sunflowers yellow and I like this pink one! I am finished with a big commission so I now will spend the weekend getting more 6x6 paper prepared for my project. I was feeling a bit guilty working on anything other than the commission paintings so now I can devote more of my time on the sunflower project.

Price

Price $75.00

Sunflower #4

'Sunflower #4' 6x6 pastel ©Karen Margulis

Today's sunflower was inspired by a painting by Henri Matisse. Next week's pastel class will focus on Matisse so I was going through my Matisse books. I love his use of color and so many of his paintings make me smile. I thought it would be fun to choose a painting I like and paint my sunflower using this palette. It was so much fun that I did #5 already! This one is on black Pastelmat card. I am going to order more of this surface. It has a wonderful feel and takes a of of pastel. They go on like butter!

Price

Price $75.00

Sunflower Painting #3

'Sunflower #3' 6x6 pastel ©Karen Margulis

Here is Sunflower #3. This one is on Wallis Belgian Mist paper using the Jimmy Wright set of Great American pastels. There is no underpainting on this one. One of the things I like to do to add to the challenge is to sometimes choose a limited palette and see what I can come up with. In this case I limited myself to the pastels chosen by Jimmy Wright for his set. I love the vibrant colors in this set!
I am happy to say that Sunflower #1 has sold! All of these sunflowers will be available for $75 each and I will be adding Paypal buttons to each post. I would love for them to have good homes!

SunflowerPainting #2

'Sunflower #2' 6x6 pastel ©Karen Margulis

It is day two of my Sunflower a Day challenge and I was anxious to get painting today. I love when that happens! Today I cut a pile of 6x6 paper from my scraps. This will be a good way to make use of those small pieces of paper. I also got together all of my sunflower reference photos for this challenge. My neighbor has some huge sunflowers in bloom so I will plan on getting some new photos and new angles. Today's painting is on navy blue canson paper on the bumpy side. I sometimes actually like the regular texture of the bumpy side.

This painting available for $75

Sunflower Painting #1 sold

'Sunflower #1' 6x6 pastel ©Karen Margulis

I have been thinking about doing another 100 painting challenge but I just couldn't settle on something that excited me. After I did this little painting for a demo it occurred to me that a Sunflower a Day would be just the subject that I would love to paint. I could find 100 variations on the sunflower theme and I would really enjoy the challenge. Imagine all 100 sunflowers hung on my studio wall! I know when I am excited about a painting idea when I start dreaming about it. I woke up this morning eager to get into the studio and paint sunflower #2!

So here are my guidelines. I plan to do 100 paintings in about 100 days or close to it. They will all be 6x6 and can be any sunflower reference and not just a variation on the same flower. I will experiment with many techniques and surfaces and will post my latest painting along with the details of my process here on this blog. I hope you will follow my progress and if you are so inspired.....start your own 100 painting challenge!