Painting without a sketch.....

.........is something I find very difficult to do.  I thought I would try painting some pansies today, taking a break from my commission.  Sometimes I need to do that to clear my head and relax. 

I painted with some friends this morning, I always appreciate the opportunity to do that.  My friend's wife had some pansies in a pot outside.  They were beautiful, but there were so many!  I figured if I got lost in the sketch I'd never get to paint, they'd die first!  So, I quickly put some abstract shapes where I thought the flowers should go, placed where I wanted the pot to be, and started painting.  Like I said, for me this is definitely out of my comfort zone. 

This one is painted with mostly Senneliers and Schminckes, such soft lucious pastels.  I had one green Girault too.  It is done on Canson Mi Teintes, the color is Ivy.  Size is  18" x 12 1/2". 

This first photo is just the painting:

© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.

This next photo is the painting with the set up, you can see my set of Senneliers on the table.  The colors in the painting here are a bit washed out, there was a light over my shoulder, and when I light up my paintings and try to take a photo, the colors get washed out.  You can see that even the paper doesn't look dark green, it looks gray.  This is to show what I painted from:

© by Christine DiMauro, all rights reserved.