Valentine's Tulips

7"X5" Oil on panel

We aren't big on Hallmark occasions in this house, but I saw these in the farm market yesterday and bought them for the men in my life. I do find flowers a challenge to paint in oils. I used to do a lot of intricate watercolour botanicals, very different from this. I may return to them one day but in the mean time my daily painting practice seems to be taking me in a very different direction. Each day I seem to be reaching for something a little beyond my grasp, something that takes me in a new direction.

Next week I will be in London and I am not sure what I am going to do about this blog. I plan to take my sketchbooks with me, maybe my watercolour pochade too but I haven't decided whether to take my laptop so I may or may not be posting. I will probably schedule a few posts with some archival material.

I am certainly looking forward to lots of enriching gallery viewing and I am going to have to be very careful not to spend too much in the art supply shops.