I don’t think Jeff reads my blog. Marketing and sales people would tell me that I don’t push it hard enough, that I should be linking posts to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. That would be difficult, since I don’t participate in any of those. This may be why I only have tens of readers; the good news is that I know most of you IN REAL LIFE! Thank you for being here.
But I digress.
Jeff’s Garden, a commissioned oil painting, might be finished. After spending the bulk of another workday on the painting, trying to beat a predicted heat wave (the swamp cooler in the painting workshop can only do so much), I sent the last photo to Jeff to ask if it is finished.
If he says yes, then I’ll sign it, paint the edges, let it dry (a quick process in the heat), varnish it, and then begin figuring out the logistics of getting it to him. His zip code appears to be a Northern California town, so it may get shipped. However, I have another trick up my sleeve that might work for delivering it; more will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Here we go with the (hopefully) final in-progress photos. You can see that I began on the poppies, working my way from left to right. Then I added sweet peas to the upper right, and finally, detailed the bench on the left with a hint of a plaque and a branding iron sitting atop.





HE SAID YES, IT IS FINISHED!
Ahem. Excuse me for shouting. The design had me baffled for awhile, and I thought this would be really difficult. So, I stepped out of my mental blocks and chaos and coached myself the way I would do for a drawing student. It worked, and this was really quite enjoyable.
2 Comments
An absolutely gorgeous painting, Jana. Well done!
Thank you, Elisabeth! It was both harder and not as hard as I expected. How’s that for doublespeak? Designing it was really difficult but once the design was approved, execution was great fun because essentially I was drawing with my paintbrushes, getting into detail as tightly as possible.