Monday, September 29, 2008

Queen Anne's Lace oil painting

"Queen Anne's Lace" 5x7 oil on canvas panel
I painted this to participate in the EBSQ Queen Anne's Lace show. They have monthly shows for their members with subjects from flowers to Spam and Trout, etc. lol! And most are competitions as well, so when an entry wins the top prize, there's a monetary award to win ;) I've been a member of EBSQ since 2002 I believe. When I first dove into the Internet for my art, I wanted to have one place that would be informative and interactive. It was definitely a good choice for me because my interactions with them served as a test lab for marketing situations on the Internet. Through my active interactions with the membership, I was able to equip myself with enough knowledge to brave selling on Ebay and to open my life to BLOGGING. I still always feel that the friends I made in the organization are never far away for a hand when I need it.

Anyway, I discovered QAL when my friend Shirley and I were driving home from painting one afternoon and we passed a field that was generously dotted with these tall umbrella-like white flowers. Shirley told me what they were and said that they were so named because they look like lace upclose and out of the clusters of white flowers is a lone red flower in the center which is thought to be a droplet of blood from Queen Anne fingers when she pricked them while she was making the lace. "Does it really have a red flower?" She didn't really know, so we had to stop the van and she went out and grabbed my a bouquet. As she hopped back in the driver's seat I searched for the red flower and sure enough, it was there :) Cool story! This painting is based on the bouquet I brought home and took quick shots of because they apparently fade very quickly! According to Wikipedia, the USDA has this flower a "noxious weed" because it serves as a pest in pastures. Well I'm glad I finally got to paint, I spent most of the day locating my scraping blade so I could freshen up my palette! Don't you just love wasting time like that?

Wow I wish you could feel that fall breeze coming through my window. Definitely a welcome treat after a warm afternoon we had today. And my bonzai's a grateful too :)

8 comments:

  1. Erika, another beautiful flower painting! I like this one a lot. Also like the story about the origin of the name. Next time I see the flowers, I have to look for the red flower. :)
    I also checked EBSQ. Thinking about joining.....

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  2. Thanks Akiko, I'm glad you can appreciate the story and why it inspired me :) The EBSQ forum is pretty extensive, you'd end up spending a lot of time in there lol Another thing I like is how well they do in the search engines.

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  3. I think one key to a great painting is warm and varying colors and tones in the shadow areas - and this painting has it! Beautiful!

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  4. I like this piece and the way you put the white pumpkins in a natural setting in the painting of a later post.

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  5. Is that how it works Hillary? It's really neat because I pictured this in my head just as you see it. Thanks!

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  6. It's always nice to read your remarks in my blog I appreciate it so much onpainting!

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  7. Not an easy flower to paint Erika...but you have succeeded! I admire your color choices and arrangement. Thank goodness cooler temps are on the way!!! I wither in the heat!

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  8. Thanks Theresa it's always so cool when I come up with a painting that I saw in my head - I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about. There was a time when I never would have attempted this flower because of all the "details" lol Thanks sweet lady!

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Thank you for taking the time to comment ~Erika