a painting a day for 10 days? Well, strangely enough, I’m too busy to create a new one every day, but I will try to post a past painting each day. Since it’s still spring, I’ll start with an iris from about 2004. It’s a “black iris” which still had enough color to make it fun to paint.
there is a free day at the SF Botanical Garden once a month, but I rather accidentally ended up there on the free day! I happened to have my painting kit with me and so I thought I would find plentiful subjects there. I wandered around the 55 acres for over an hour, ending up near the main gate where there were some magnificent crabapple trees blooming. I have never had a lot of luck or skill at painting flowering trees, but they were so beautiful I had to try again.
It was pretty late by the time I got back around to that location, and the sun was streaming over the lawn from a low point, making these great shadows that are really fun. It seems the trick is to simplify the trees, just making them into shapes.
Micaela Marsden 