30 in 30 - Day 8 - Remembering Mother's Day

Version 1

 

 

 Version 2

8x8

oil on gessoboard

For today's challenge of day 8 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days I decided to tackle a painting that needed something changed.  You can see the painting on top above.  

After I took Camille Przewodek's workshop in May of this year I painted this bouquet of flowers out in my back-yard.  We had done a lot of palette knife painting in the workshop so I used a palette knife and set up my still life in over-head sun in front of a brick wall wanting to capture the warmth of the sun.

I painted what was there in front of me, but something about the subject didn't work for me.   The color combination just seemed a little lack-luster...
It wasn't until I saw this painting of "Backlit Sunflowers" by Eric Merrell that I hit me.  That wall in the back-ground just didn't do anything to set off the colors of the flowers.   What I like about Eric's still life is the color combination.   His flowers with that back-ground reminded me of Camille's way of capturing the warmth of the sun hitting a subject.  And Eric is a master with colors!  He also has a unique way of simplifying his values with his beautiful signature brush strokes.

So today, in my second version, I changed the background to a cooler blue.  I also worked on the shadow of the flowers hitting the table cloth and warmed them both up.

Does it make a difference?  Let me know what you think!