Spring 2018 -- new paintings

This painting from a photo I took of a still life I set up with wine and roses from my garden was started in March in anticipation of not being able to paint for awhile due to family member having surgery.  I like to finish a painting while my enthusiasm and excitement is strong.  I have used mostly watercolor but also added "gesso juice" to bring back some of the whites and give the painting some texture.  I didn't finish and started working  it again several weeks ago.  I'm not quite done with the curvature of the wine glass on the right and the red rose might need some light highlights.  It just felt good to get my brushes wet after so many weeks of not painting. Any comments are welcome .
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This was my first new start after the 8 weeks of not painting.  It usually takes some courage to put those first strokes on the blank paper so I decided to go with a background under-painting on Yupo with webbing and spraying concentrated watercolors.  I used a few more colors than originally planned so that added to how busy the background turned out.  That is the wonderful part of painting with watercolors on Yupo--you can get back to the white of the paper by lifting what you don't like.  When I start without a subject in mind I will look at the painting in different lights and turned different ways for several days.  I often ask family members what they see in the painting  as well.   This one might require a lot of lifting to achieve the desired result!  Paintings that were done like this can be seen in several of my "shoe" paintings and my first painting of the Peacock in Paradise done with webbing and concentrated watercolors sprayed.

Image "1" - The first shape I saw  was a white boot and not in a good place for a subject.  When you spray through the webbing you can always get interesting shapes and faces.  I can see a king or bearded man and I see several blue horses. 

Image "2" I can see making an abstract painting  of cyclists riding towards us.

Images 3,4:  I might have to turn the bottom two paintings upside down to see something to build on.  I would really appreciate any ideas that come to your "eye" too!

So when you ask me how long did my painting take -- this is one reason it might be a lot longer time period than you were expecting.  Painting is a process of creating something from your heart and feelings. 

​ It is good to get back after 8 weeks to doing what I love to do.