HaHA—TWO paintings out of $3.99 tulips—take THAT never-ending winter!

I now have a diptych: one painting with the closed tulips and one with the upright, open tulips in their full colour. I wasn’t sure that they would work together since I had chosen to keep the drapery the same and at first they did look a little too similar. The other afternoon when I went into the studio I only had 2 of the 3 lights shining on the still life which changed all the shadows in the drapery and vase and made it all just a touch darker. I adjusted the painting and that seems to be what it needed. They are an interesting tonal and colour study now with the drapery and tulips being different in each painting (and super hard to photograph).

I briefly considered making it a triptych with a painting of the dying flowers, and I may still do that with the next still life, but I don’t have another 24″ x 32″ board and the smell of oil paint is starting to get to me. So as my husband would say, “Another day, Highlander” (which I discovered today is not the actual movie quote).

I did do a diptych with dying tulips way back in 2003, while I was in university. My photos of them aren’t very good so I will have to remember to re-photograph them the next time I visit my sister (where they are hanging in her stairwell). I was feeling so good about these new tulip paintings and feeling like I was “back” until I looked up the 2003 tulip paintings. The 2003 ones are still better. I am getting better and my technique and colour execution has gotten better, but I’m still not “back”. Argh! It’s a funny thing when you realize that all your university professors were right and that it is indeed very hard to get back into art once you’ve taken a break. Though I have formed the habit of making art again, which is something; when I don’t paint for three days it feels like it’s been weeks.

I think for now I need to air out my studio and get out of the house. My studio is very full with oil paintings drying…

Hmmm. I’ve just been comparing these two diptychs and thinking about where I was emotionally when I painted them. The 2003 ones were done just after I moved into an apartment with my fiancée. My mom was coming to visit and I bought the tulips to dress the place up. I felt, however accurate or inaccurate my interpretation may have been, that she was not pleased that I had moved in with him before we were married. I left the tulips alone for a week afterwards and just watched them die. Whereas right now I am just getting back into making art and feeling like it is a re-awakening for me. In that sense maybe the new paintings are completely appropriate as they are.