Easter Bloom

Another one of my calla lilly studies. I teach a lot of color theory in my painting class and I find the topic of warm and cool temperature shifts can be very easily demonstrated in yellow objects, such as this calla lilly. Where the form turns and the petal reflects light on itself the tones warm and deepen considerably. Where they turn into the leaves surrounding them they tend to cool, picking up the greener light reflecting off those.

Yellow Lily III

Calla lilies are so fun to paint - part petal, part satin, part billowy fabric.

Yellow Lily

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Here is another painting from one of the two lily plants I brought to class a few weeks ago for my students to paint. I did a demo in class and had so much fun painting that when I brought them home I just went to town.

Pink Lily

I know, I know. I am the queen of snazzy titles for these little studies. It might not get much snazzier, so I hope you love the paintings themselves. I loved playing with the brushwork here, coaxing the waxy leaves out of the canvas, letting its delicate shadow wrap around the flower, and letting most everything else fade into the background, just suggesting the shapes that might be lurking there.

When I was in art school, I might have called something like this, "The Antidisestablishmentarianism of Public Education in Great Britain Between World Wars I and II." (Oh who am I kidding? I called everything that in art school.) If you went to art school at pretty much any university you know what I'm talking about.