Here are two recent paintings of the same subject matter: My Garden.
It’s a modest pollinator garden in Lower Ranchitos. Cosmos, chamomile, and cone flowers, along with a variety of penstemon, chickory, dill, yarrow, and wild carrot.
I’ve kind of given up trying to grow veggies other than lettuce because the temperature is always a little too low to allow for tomatoes, squash, and other yummies without elaborate frost-covering strategies in the early spring and fall.
The painting on the left, “Artist’s Garden,” uses an impasto technique with exaggerated outlines for my usual naive approach, and the painting on the right, “August Garden,” uses a transparent layering technique using an oil painting medium in addition to the paint.
Both paintings capture the feeling of my garden without trying to reproduce how the garden looks. I love how the chamomile really takes the painting into the realm of detail without adding detail.
I think next I will have to paint a view that includes some of my gigantic dill plants. Those kinds of details are tedious to execute but the finished result is really sweet.