Spring Flowers WIP 1

I decided to do the spring flowers instead of the rusty colored still-lifes. Maybe the bright colors of the flowers will allow me to put together some more saturated still-lifes when I try it again! Which I really need to do soon, but sometimes if you push yourself too hard you'll just end up with a poor composition and a waste of time. 

Working on vased flowers like this feels a lot like piecing together a puzzle... which I must like because I am really enjoying myself!. So much so that I am thinking about going to In the Co. of Flowers on Main St every month and drawing one of their arrangements! Here's a similar spring arrangement I did last year.

Working on this simple arrangement also reminds me of the flower paintings of Manet that I read about in the book by Robert Gordon The Last Flowers of Manet (Abradale Books). 

description from Amazon.com: In the winter of 1880 Edouard Manet, then 49, was dying. In the last months of his life he funnelled his waning energy into a series of remarkable still lifes - 16 small paintings of flowers - which are brought together in this book. An essay by Andrew Forge pays tribute to the artist's struggle and his legacy, and Robert Gordon's selections from Manet's letters add poignancy to this last glow of a brillia artistic flame. 

A simple way to see some of his flower paintings is to do a google image query for Manet flowers.