Geranium Joy

To me, one of the many joys of summer is the eye-popping color of the brilliant red geraniums that always grace our front steps.  Somehow the colors seem to get more and more vibrant each year!  The little painting that I'm featuring this week is based on a photograph provided in a great workshop I took in Kentucky with artist Dreama Tolle Perry.

 I started my painting on a smooth 6x6 panel and sketched the basic shapes with an orange-red because I wanted some of that color to peek through in the finished piece to unite the painting with the geranium red theme. 

Using Dreama's technique, I quickly covered the whole canvas with transparent colors mixed with a fairly glossy medium.  Since I use a palette of only three transparent and three opaque primary colors, I mixed the colors I wanted before applying.

 

While the first layer was still wet, I painted the second layer much more thickly and included my opaque colors.  I had the most fun hinting at the shape of the geranium leaves by defining their edges and allowing bits of leaves and blossoms to "be free".  It was a joy to paint ... Geranium Joy.

Geranium Joy, Available

6x6 oil, framed