Provence Poppies II, 12x12

Sorting through the studio.....
.......I ran across a painting from 6 or 7 years ago that I had done in the studio using a small Provence field sketch as reference.  I remembered at the time being dissatisfied with it but went ahead and put it in a gallery for a short time, but it didn't sell.

After getting it back home I must have worked on it a bit and given up, not clicking on what it was lacking.  I could remember the scene clearly, but didn't know how to make the lines and busyness of the foreground weave my eye into the mid and background.

This is what it originally was posted as back in 2012:

2012 Version

The photo may not have been that great but even so the piece is flat and uninteresting to my eye.  The horizontal and diagonal lines were dominating.  My eye skipped over the poppies and ended on the white flower bush in the mid-distance....and got stuck there.  The background I liked. 

It seemed to me I needed to make the poppies more interesting, subdue the mid-ground flowers, and find a few more verticals.  After making those adjustments I thought it looked better....yet I was still dissatisfied.

That's when that large cumulus cloud in the background was added as a vertical element, one that subtly mimicked the tree shape.  Satisfaction level got lifted.  Perhaps it should be a larger painting.  Beats me.  What do you think?

Thanks for looking! 

Provence Time VI, 8x8

What is this urge we humans have to beautify our world?  From the ancient caves at Lascaux to the petroglyph decorated boulder at the north end of this island.....and to a doorway somewhere in the south of France, we seem to have a need to decorate.  Ourselves, our surroundings, our walls.  It's a nice urge.

Maybe that's a reason why we paint.  We're decorating. 

That....but I think more than that.  Color is certainly exciting.  I like using it to halt time to entice your eye so we both can see and share something for just an instant.  Our worlds connect.  When it works, our minds make a fleeting communication....and we know each other better.

But it's more than color alone.  Shapes and forms, values, mystery, belief, history, dignity, angst, edges and edginess all play a part in the depth of our communication....even in something as simple and direct as a pot of flowers on the steps of a very old home in Provence....placed there to decorate the world.

Provence Time 4, 8x8

Here are two more from the miniature show at Roby-King.  In the first one I thought the roses would be the attention grabber....but now I think the light dancing on the wall wins the show.  What do you think?

The windows in France, especially in the south, often have flowers in them, on them, around them.  They are all carefully tended.  There is something so attractive about new young exuberant blossoms being set off by the old and weathered. 

Provence Time, 8x10

The Annual Roby King Miniature Show opens this Friday.  I submitted five of Provence and am posting two here.  If you can come they have hung nearly a hundred paintings from scads of artists.  There has to be something there for everyone to see and enjoy.  From what I've seen, the prices are very reasonable....and looking is free.