"Midsummer's Flowers", Painting as of May 28, 2025

Here is my painting as of May 28. I am painting this for a July exhibit with the theme "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare.  My painting is based on a little poem from the play: "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,/Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." Each of the four lines of the poem appears on the border of the painting.  Inside the border are paintings of each of the six flowers mentioned, done in the style of botanical illustration. On May 28, using as reference the sketches I had made on paper,  I used conte crayon on the canvas to block in the location of each of the six plants.  At this point, I was just trying to establish the layout and the composition. 

Color Sketches for "Midsummer's Flowers," May 25-27

Yesterday I posted a  collection of the pencils sketches I drew around May 23-24, as I prepared to include these flowers in my painting "Midsummer's Flowers." Today I am posting a second set of flower sketches for the painting, this time done in color with Sharpie pens on paper May 25-27. The painting is for show in a July with the theme of Shakespeare's play "Midsummer Night's Dream." I am basing my painting on a short poem from the play: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With musk-roses and with eglantine."  In my painting, the text of the poem is written around all four sides of the image, on a border painted to look like a picture frame.  Within that frame, I will paint each of the six flowers in the style of botanical illustration. To do these sketches, I had to figure what Shakespeare understood by these names, which aren't all in contemporary use.  (There is a whole little industry on botany in Shakespeare.) And then I looked at a lot of photos to figure out leaf shape, petal number, etc.  and then made these sketches.  Sometimes the photos didn't agree, especially on leaf shape, so I had to choose.

"Midsummer's Flowers" (Painting) as of May 24, 2025

This painting is for an upcoming exhibit with the theme "Midsummer Night's Dream" by Shakespeare.  I am basing this painting on a little poem from the play.: "I know a bank where the wild thyme grows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,/Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." Each of the four lines of the poem appears on the border of the painting.  Inside the border are paintings of each of the six flowers mentioned, done in the style of botanical illustration.

Pencil Sketches for "Midsummer's Flowers," May 23-25, 2025

This is a collection of the pencils sketches I drew around May 23-24, as I prepared to paint these flowers in my painting "Midsummer's Flowers." The painting is for an upcoming show organized around the theme of Shakespeare's play "Midsummer Night's Dream." My painting is based on a short poem from the play that mentions these six flowers.* In my painting, the text of the poem will run around the edges of the canvas, like a picture frame, and within the frame I will paint each of the six flowers in the style of botanical illustration. So while I was laying out the composition on the canvas and establishing the lettering, I was also researching images of these plants, and then sketching them.  Big breakthrough as I figured out how to create a collage of these sketches!!!

*The poem: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows / Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With musk-roses and with eglantine."

"Brothers and Sisters" (Portrait as of May 24, 2025)

Here is the portrait I am working on as it looked on May 24th.  I continued to work on the positions and proportions of these four little kids.  I had been struggling with the position of the feet, but found a secret weapon.  In my reference photo, the kids are standing on a surface of rectangular pavers, which provided a grid for me!  So I got out my protractor, checked the angles in the reference photo, and then tried to reproduce those angles on the canvas.  This sounds like a strange way to begin a portrait, but it was really helpful.

PS. If you look closely, you can see a number written on each figure: that's the child's age.  I want to keep that in mind because proportions change as children grow.

"Brothers and Sisters," Portrait as of May 23, 2025

Here is the portrait I am working on, as it looked on May 23rd. I am making haste slowly, try to get the proportions and positions right for all four children before I go forward.  It would be more fun to dive right in and paint the faces, but it is important to do this first.  The way the face looks really does depend on the position of the body, so I need to be patient and work this out. At this point, I was struggling with getting four pairs of kids shoes in the right place.. . .

"Midsummer's Flowers" (Shakespeare project), Painting as of May 23, 2025

This is the painting I am working on for the upcoming art show with the theme of  Shakespeare's play "Midsummer Night's Dream". On May 23, I continued working with the layout, concentrating (and correcting) the text around the edges of the canvas.  Each side is a line from the poem that I am using as the basis for the painting: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." I am planning to paint the borders to look like a frame. And within the frame I am going to paint the six different types of poems names in the painting, in the style of botanical illustrations. You can see the labels on each rectangle: wild thyme, oxlips, nodding violets, woodbine, musk-roses, and eglantine.  I this point, I was just concentrating on straightening out the placement of the lettering.  This part is messy and also tedious, but it has to be done because the text is an important part of the painting. To be continued. . . .

"Midsummer's Flowers" (Shakespeare project), sketch on canvas, May 22, 2025

I am working on a painting for an upcoming art show with  Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream" as it's theme. On May 22, I started working on the layout, sketching on the canvas with graphite (always a nightmare).  This quotation from the play is the basis for the painting: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." I am laying out this quotation around the four edges of the painting, which will be painted to look like a frame.  Within the frame are six rectangles, one for each of the six flowering plants mentioned in the poem: wild thyme, oxlips, nodding violets, woodbine, musk-roses, and eglantine.  Inside each of the rectangles I am going to paint the plants (as labeled), but in the style of a botanical illustration.  (There are a lot of plants in Shakespeare, and lots of people have written on the subject.  There are even books on botany and Shakespeare.)  This sketch is still very rough, including the lettering, which is hard to read. At this point, I was just trying to set up the composition.  To be continued. . . .

Brothers and Sisters (Portrait) as of May 22, 2025

I am getting started on a new commission, a portrait of four children.  My source is a vacation photo supplied by their father.  At this point, I am sketching on canvas with conte crayon, just trying to get the layout right and establish the positions of the figures.  Maybe you can tell I am working out proportions, which change as children age.  The figures might seem to be positioned too low on the canvas, but that is because I am leaving room for the background, which will be a castle.  

Rough Sketch for "Midsummer's Flowers" (Shakespeare project)

I have an opportunity to participate in an upcoming art show with the theme "Midsummer Night's Dream." I am going to base my painting on this quotation: "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine." I had been thinking about painting the scene, and looked up images of all the flowers. But couldn't come up with a good way to incorporate the text. (I have done several of these literary theme paintings lately, and like to include some text.) Yesterday I finally had an idea.  I decided to paint each of the flowers in the style of botanical illustration, and then paint a border, making it look like a picture frame, and that would serve as the background for the text. I drew an exceeding rough pencil sketch, but this was enough to give me confidence that my idea was workable.

Bonita Bacalhau (Codfish project 2025)

Here is Bonita Bacalhau, my entry for the 2025 Codfish Auction held to benefit Marblehead Festival of Art.  (This is an online auction and people can bid from anywhere.) This year I decorated my codfish form with patterns inspired by Portuguese tile, hence her name, Portuguese for Pretty Codfiah.  On May 2nd, I finished obsessively correcting small mistakes, painted the back, and attached the hanging hardware.  I put her up on the wall to make sure she would hang correctly, and then took this picture to send in with my paperwork.  This was my "farewell" picture, because the next day I delivered her to Marblehead.  But I will see her again (and so will you) because she will soon have an official photo taken for the auction website, and I will post that here.