"Yellow Roses, Alstromeria & Baby's Breath" -- oil on canvas -- 12x9" -- Margie Guyot

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! I've been very busy for the past month with change-of-season chores and getting a new car. I'm starting up a henhouse for the first time ever (a lifelong dream of mine) and there never seems to be enough hours in the day! I've learned not to despair: it just happens like this once in a while, where I get too busy to paint everyday.

I love this vase, the way it distorts the stems of the roses! Some of you may recognize the yellow-flowered vintage tablecloth. It's a favorite of mine that I like using in paintings.

Roses and other flowers are harder to paint than you'd think! All those doggone petals! You look at the flowers and think "this one will be easy" -- but once you start trying to paint them, it suddenly seems impossible. It's one of those things where you have to expect panic at first, but have to just hang in there, knowing you'll figure it out. I guess that happens a lot of the time for most artists. It's the experienced painters that know not to stop -- but to keep at it, knowing they'll get it in time.

One thing I kept in mind while painting this was to pay attention to the shadows in the blossoms. A good portion of the big, central rose was in shade. People who don't paint ("left-brainers") aren't aware of the interesting range of colors that occur when a flower is in shade. Impossible to describe in words what colors there are sometimes.