Texas Bluebonnets Oil Painting

Texas Bluebonnets

12x12 Oil on Canvas

Cheri Wollenberg

My son videos cattle for a cattle commission company here in Oklahoma.  He spends a lot of time in Texas and he knows that I love the Texas landscapes in the spring when their wildflower, the Bluebonnet, covers their pastures like a plush carpet.  Recently he brought some photos home and shared them with me.  I was so inspired that I created this painting.  Painting from photographs is never the same as being in the real place painting from life!  The artist misses out on the whole experience and is handicapped in producing the right colors, depth, and values when painting from photo images.  But, I still enjoyed painting this little vignette and remembered the times that I was so impressed with the countrysides of that great state.  It is listed in my Etsy shop.

Sunflowers III

Sunflowers III

16x20 Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Here in Fayetteville, Arkansas we have had many weeks of dry and "hot" weather.  Like so many cities and states we have had record-breaking temperatures.  Many states now have had temperatures in three digits for over 30 days.  The sunflower is one wildflower that seems to withstand these temperatures.  They have become wilted and dry, but those beautiful yellow petals still hold a beauty that so many of us cannot resist.  Several weeks ago we were invited to a friend's home to see her son off on a journey that he is taking.  My friend (who is an artist) had decorated the tables and various places in her home with these magnificent flowers that had come from her father's garden.  She shared these particular ones with me and I have started several paintings from photos that I had taken of them in several different compositional stills.  Sunflowers III can be purchased by clicking here.

Painting Demo of Bouquet of Daisies - Daisy Dance

Daisies are cropping up all over alongside the roads in Northwest Arkansas.  I find myself dreaming up how to paint them as I travel on the road.  What is really scary is that I would like to stop.....doesn't matter where....and pick some of them.  Is this stealing?  They are wild flowers and they don't look like they belong to anyone!  I fear I have been a thief on occasion.  Tempting they are and I have decided to give you a very small story in pictures about this painting - a painting demo starting at a decision making point.  Here goes:

No....I didn't pick these daisies along the road!  Yes, they are fake!  I prepared a canvas with acrylic paints and did a quick, rough underpainting of the daisies.  I started my imagining a little too late, but I painted gray tones where I would place the daisies and I painted the vase brilliant yellow.  When it was dry I began to paint over the underpainting with my oil paints. 

I have a tendency to over-do everything!!!  I had such a good time painting the daisies that I tried to get them all on the painting support.  This created a perfect ball for a bouquet (a manicured topiary!) (laugh).  I decided I needed to take some of the daisies out!

Daisy Dance

12x12 Original Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

This is better even though the bouquet is a little tight.  I could paint more flowers out, but this is where I'll stop.  I will paint another one with some real daisy flowers.  This was good practice!  Click here if interested:

Daisy Dance

 

Sunflowers II

Sunflower I

6x8 Original Oil on Canvas

by

Cheri Wollenberg

Sunflowers defined are tall plants with yellow-petaled blossoms.  They are much more to artists!  They capture our eyes with their extremely warm and brilliant yellow petals that range from green yellows to rusty golden yellows.  They are in no way timid...they are wild and boldly attractive to us.  They tease us with different anatomy and design.  Their petals are sometimes wide and overlapped as opposed to slender and sparse.  Some of them have very dark, almost black, seedy centers while others have brown, green, or gold centers.  They all seem to have those grabby rough leaves which somehow reflect the sky as we examine them from a distance.  In Oklahoma the sunflowers grow up from red dirt which makes them more attractive than ever.  The reds complement the greens so beautifully.  We artists, like Van Gogh cannot help from trying to capture and express their image.   Oh my, what a privilege we have as painters to try to emulate with brush on canvas this excellent natural plant,

a gift from God the Creator.

Oklahoma Black-eyed Susan Meadow

Oklahoma Black-eyed Susan Meadow

by

Cheri Wollenberg

This is yet another meadow of black eyed susans that I spotted on a drive to Oklahoma. Through the years my husband has quit being startled when I say “stop” to take a photo! In fact he has begun to be on the lookout with me (smiles). Though the black eyed susan is considered a weed I cannot ever dislike it. The golden carpets they make are so inviting. It is like they are speaking to us, telling us to come….run through them, smell them, touch them, pick them, and enjoy them.

Indian Paintbrush in Oklahoma

Indian Paintbrush in Oklahoma

by

Cheri Wollenberg

We visit Oklahoma quite often.  We have a farm home there and our grandchildren live just down the road.  One early morning  in the spring I drove some country roads looking for different landscapes to paint. I didn't have time on this particular trip to set up a field easel so I took my camera.  I guess you could call me a visual scavenger (grin).  It had been an especially good year for the wildflowers and I came upon this equisite view of Indian Blanket with several tree lines graduating into the distance of a couple of miles. What a sight! This is one of the paintings that came from the beautiful view that day.

Prints for this painting can be purchased at http://www.fineartamerica.com/

or http://www.cheri-wollenberg.artistwebsites.com/. 

Wildflowers and Black-Eyed Susans

Carpet of Black-Eyed Susans

in Oklahoma

There are some years that wildflowers grow “wildly” and so abundant that they cover the earth as a carpet. These years are so visually exciting. It is like manna (a Biblical term for miraculous food) to an artist. As my husband and I were traveling on a trip to our farm home the black-eyed susans were so abundant that I had to stop several times to take resource pictures. It was enchanting! I never tire of seeing these beauties in my home state of Oklahoma.