I was thinking about the film 'Bonnie and Clyde' with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty while I was painting this. The line from the film that always stands out for me is when she says to him 'Baby I got the blues so bad...' It has the feeling of somebody at rock bottom and in total despair. I thought I'd name this painting after that line so it's called 'The Blues'. Painting all day on my own can result in some strange trains of thought at times! This painting is in oil on board and it's 8 x 8 inches.

Asters in 1930s Jug

I've been doing lots of dog portraits lately and for a while didn't seem to have much time to paint the floral still lives that I enjoy doing so much. However, I've decided I've got to MAKE time so started getting up earlier to work on a small painting for a couple of hours a day. This is one that I thought turned out well - the colours and the jug give it a vintage feel I think.

White Freesias

I wanted to keep this one simple and neutral. It was a tricky painting to do though, as for some reason the flowers started to wilt on the second day! Painting flowers never seems to get any easier!

Garden Flowers and Pear

The above photos show the progress of my recent painting 'Garden Flowers and Pear' from the set up to the finished work. I took a different perspective with this one and painted it standing up and looking down which I think gives a more dynamic result. I do like to be comfortable when I'm painting though so I prefer sitting down really - I'm just so lazy!

Lisianthus and Two Lemons - step by step Here's another stage by stage description of how I painted 'Lisianthus and Two Lemons'

This was my set up. I really liked the clashing patterns of the orange embroidered cloth and the plate together, although I did think the scarf at the back might prove a bit too much with the other patterns, so I was thinking I might change the colours or just leave it plain.

Step 1 I outlined the shapes of the objects with a thinned mix of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna. At this stage I was observing very closely the proportions of the objects and their relationship to everything else.

Step 2 I started to block in the colours, trying to get them as accurate as possible. At this stage I am quite concerned to get the flowers in as they can change quickly, and also to get the values correct in relation to each other. I kept everything quite low-key as I wanted the white flowers to stand out.

Step 3 The block in is complete - now the fun can begin!

Step 4 I felt a bit worried at this stage - I thought I'd bitten off more than I could chew with the complicated pattern and getting the ellipse of the plate correct! But there was no turning back...

Step 5 Phew! I was quite surprised it didn't look too bad. I had to do a couple of tweaks to the shape of the plate to get it to look convincing.

Step 6 I then proceeded to paint the orange pattern on the cloth, darkening the orange in the shadows, and I also decided to darken the background to make the flowers stand out more dramatically. I'd decided to lose the pattern on the scarf at the back and just paint it a plain blue-black.

Step 7 This is a scan of the finished painting. I've worked a bit more on the shadows in the cloth, refined the pattern on the plate, developed the shadows and highlights on the lemons and added highlights to the side of the plate and the flower pot.