Singing Hollyhock 4

Singing Hollyhock 4                                                5x5 oil

This will be my last hollyhock painting for awhile.  In this piece, I concentrated on simplifying the petals as much as possible. I'm very pleased with the result!

Summer Sisters

 Summer Sisters   6x6 inch oil

After having fun painting "portraits" of individual hollyhock blossoms, I turned to painting them in the abundance that we are accustomed to seeing them.  This series has been a fun way to explore painting with pinks (I'm more familiar with reds) and the way that they create beautiful purples.  I also discovered the wonderful glow that adding orange gives them.

Singing Hollyhock 3

Singing Hollyhock 3   5x5 inch oil

In this little painting, I fell in love with the grayed pinks and lavenders that created the blossoms on the left and the spark of yellow in the center of the main flower. In the original painting, the flowers are a softer pink and don't look as blue as they do here. Sometimes, Photoshop baffles me....

Singing Hollyhock 2

Singing Hollyhock 2   6x6 inch oil

This hollyhock painting is slightly larger than the other two in the series.  It measures 6x6 inches versus 5x5 inches.  Although it's difficult to capture in a photo,  what excited me when painting this is the discovery of how much red and orange I could use in the foliage and still have it look green. The colors in the original paintings are just a wee bit softer than they look here.