"Blue Hydrangeas" -- oil on canvas -- 8x10" -- Margie Guyot

I'd just finished painting a large still life and was all jivved up, in "paint" mode. Ever get that way? You just don't want to put away your brushes and wipe off your palette. So you look around for something else to paint. Aha! I had this little pot of blue hydrangeas sitting on my windowsill.

And I just LOVE painting fabric! Wrinkles, folds -- just bring it on! It's all just like a jigsaw puzzle. Some people are addicted to crossword puzzles; I am addicted to figuring out painting puzzles. This fabric had a bit of a sheen to it and the interesting thing I noticed was that in places, it had a definite orange sheen in the shadows and folds. The sunlight was burning through it, creating that rich, orange shade.

And I really liked painting the lavender plastic cellophane! It was picking up the coolest reflections from the gold fabric! And the shapes were just a lark to paint. You'll laugh, but painting the actual flowers was less exciting than painting all the shapes and colors around them.