On a bright, sunny Minnesotan day – I set up my easel in the Hessel yard to paint some flowers. Not my typical subject matter, but I needed to sharpen the dagger for Tuesday’s main event – the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center, downtown Minneapolis.

Choosing the subject matter.

Setting up the easel, part in the garden – I chose a cluster of flowers and used my mental Photoshop powers to select a handful.

The first flower, waiting for someone to chill with.

Working through the flowers, building the initial structure.

Trying to accurately capture the fractures, twists and turns in each petal.

The line throughout was a rough capture of the background, as seen through this dense foliage.

Starting out with deep reds, alizarin crimson (mixed.)

Setting a dark under painting.

Deep greens and deep reds.

My thoughts at this stage was to paint the background bright purple.

Instead, an understated blue made a cameo appearance.

Balanced, the drawing stands out, time to fill in the leaves, stems and flowers.

Lush greens.

Dirty burnt sienna for the flowers deeper tones, to help create depth.

Flowers filled in, interesting collective palette at this point.

Full under painting.

Deeper tones in the flower bed.

Look at that unkempt artist out in the garden, should we call the police?

Paint paint paint.

Hello! A light purple, not the exact tone I had in mind at the inset, but, feels good.

Painting the light on the flowers.

Bright and balanced.

Things got bright.

The final picture, 20″X20″.