Day 5. Go Outside (Kinda)

“Big, Bold, Beautiful Azaleas” 8×8, oil on canvas $100.00 [button link=”http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/denise-hopkins/big-bold-beautiful-azaleas/365562″ type=”big”] Buy Now[/button]

Happy Easter!

This is another painting based on a suggestion I received when I posted a picture of a large 30x30in blank canvas and asked what to paint. Erica, who has inspired several other paintings  (see “Be a Duck” and “Visions and Revisions”) wrote “big, bold, beautiful azaleas”, and while these aren’t very big, I’d like to think they are at least bold and, if I’m lucky, beautiful.

Ezra and I were on a walk when I spotted them. I wanted to paint them from life, outdoors, but with a toddler, stroller, no supplies and about a mile from home, I had to do the next best thing– snap a few photos on my iphone and revisit the image later. I paint from photos often and while there is no comparison between photos and life (one artist describes it as the difference between painting a dog and painting a dead dog) I’ve found that the photograph-based paintings whose image I’ve actual witnessed firsthand (i.e, taken the picture myself) have an energy to them that photograph-based paintings whose image I haven’t seen with my own eyes just don’t. Maybe it’s in my head, but I hope the visual experience somehow lingers and aids the painting even though my literal reference is the photo I took. Who knows.

But, mark my words, I WILL get outside to do some paintings from life. I’ve even got my first location all marked out. It’s a little spot in Mandeville not too far from the azalea bushes where these guys were found.