"Barrington Belle"


©A.K.Simon - Barrington Belle - 6"x6" oil on Raymar panel - $85 (includes shipping)

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

Oscar Wilde

Well I got through the white one then tried the red one and this is the third attempt. There is such a false sense of security after you paint something that you really like and you say after all these years, "I got this." Then comes the next white canvas and you try the same exact approach and you say, "maybe I don't got this!" So you struggle, wipe off the bad paintings then realize that the tones staining the canvas from the previous attempts are just what you needed to succeed with the third attempt. Moral, don't give up because we all "got this!" (just maybe not right away) 

Paeonia Petal Overload



© A.K.SIMON - Paeonia Petal Overload - 6x6 - SOLD

I will be the gladdest thing

Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.
~Edna St. Vincent Millay, "Afternoon on a Hill"

Every year I try painting peonies. I don't grow any so I have to rely on others to share theirs. I even carry my camera on my morning walks so I can secretly take pictures of them in the morning sun at somebody else's house. This one is, I believe, what they call the paeonia and it is also considered the "common" garden variety of peony. Wow, if this is common I can't wait to see what's uncommon!

I'm not lying, peonies are my nemesis and I actually get a little anxious about painting them. Today though I remembered a line from Richard Schmid's book, and I paraphrase, "just don't worry about whether you have the talent and move on." So today I put on the headphones to distract me and just painted shapes with different values in a pattern. This is what came out and I think it is very representational of the feeling of "fruffiness" that I get when I think peony. Just don't tell me if you don't think so because I have a fragile ego where peonies are concerned!

Tomorrow the burgundy one! Much, much more challenging!