Cherry Blossoms

Just finished the isloated cherry blossom painting that I wrote about earlier- titled uniquely "Cherry Blossoms". Maybe I can spend more than two seconds thinking up a better title for this. But at least for now, I'm actually pretty excited to see how it turned out. In many ways, I believe that it keeps from being too busy yet still captures the essence of cherry blossoms that explode around the Washington DC Tidal Basin every March/April.

I did include some impressionist overtones to the work- specifically in the petals and also the branches where I blotted in some petals and tried to color the branches with shadowing. Might have worked, might not have. But I'm still pretty happy and it's hanging in the loft as I write this.


To create this painting, I used two references- one was an inspiration that I took from "The Apprentice", believe it or not. There's a ancient Japanese-style art lithograph hanging outside Trump's board room that I caught a glimpse of and which gave me the background shading idea and basic imagery concept. Then I used a few pictures I took of Tidal Basin cherry blossoms to identify which branches I wanted to paint and which I felt allowed for isolation of the blossom groupings. To specifically identify a type of blossom to give me flower foundation (is that an actual term?), I used the image at right. I didn't know it at the time I started, but there are apparently several different varieties of cherry blossom, stemming from several different variety of cherry tree. Go figure. In retrospect the fact that there are multiple cherry trees in the whole cherry tree family makes complete sense. But I think I spent even less time thinking about that then I did in naming my painting. So now I know. Huh. The things you learn.

I have painted flowers in the past, some abstract some natural. The below painting is of a desert cactus flower on a smaller 5"x5" canvas. It's one of the first paintings I completed, sometime during or around '94 when I was still stuck in 29 Palms. In the spring, the Mojave desert comes alive with April rains, longer days and mild temperatures. On one occasion I quite literally stumbled across this barrel cactus with flowers bursting out the top. It's one of my first paintings so I hadn't quite yet learned how to create depth or use shadows but I have a thing about going back to correct paintings- I don't like to do that because then they'll never be done. So instead, I'll just look at it, enjoy it and recognize that it was a good first shot at painting. Please note dad's thumb in the bottom right for artistic panache. Fantastico!


Then there's my strange habit of hitting abstract paintings from time to time. I'm not really quite sure why, but I like to try different styles from time to time. The below painting- "Crazy Pitcher" was finished last year and is about as out there as I get in paintings. It follows the red, white and blue theme that I like to use from time to time and it gets mixed reviews on likability.

Now, on to two smaller paintings and a larger climber painting that I want to knock out in the next couple days. Maybe I'll complete them, maybe I wont. But with taxes and tons of gym time to look forward to, I'm entering crunch time.

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