Safeway Bouquet

I’ll continue the story behind the puppet paintings soon, but wanted to post a drawing I’ve been working on the past few days.

I decided to put aside portraits for a while, and do a still life.  My wife, Holly, brought home an arrangement of roses that really caught my eye.  To my amazement, she had picked it up at the local Safeway.  I don’t recall seeing flowers arranged this originally when I’ve been shopping with her there.

Working on the sketch, and looking forward to the painting, I think I need to decide what to leave out.  The row of reeds behind the roses is very intricate, and I believe if I try to put in every detail it might bog down the painting.  I’m going to experiment with treating the stems and reeds in more of an impressionistic, abstract way.