Flowers for a Friend

Flowers For a Friend 9 1/2 x 13 1/2 pastel Sold

I have a funeral service to attend this weekend, and it has put me in the mind frame of thinking of memories of those who have drifted in and out of my life and the memories I hold dear of each of them.  So often we get caught up in our own little worlds that we don't make the time to keep in contact with the very important people in our lives.  The lady whos funeral I will be attending is a co-worker of mine from years past ~ Marsha, and I have many regrets to loosing contact with her. She will be missed and I will forever remember the laughter.  This painting is dedicated to her.


I keep these little words of wisdom on my fridge, and it's been hanging there a good six months, but just like loosing touch with others, I don't take the time to read it, and that was the point to hanging on the fridge in the first place, to read it daily. I want to share it with you.

To begin the painting, I chose an older painting that I could never get to look quite right, and I brushed off as much pastel as I could and then wiped it down with an alcohol wash.  If you look closely you can still see the old painting - it was a horse with a reflection in the water, but it was not coming out quite like I wanted so it was time to put that paper to another use.

I wanted to try something new and I had some bottles of liquid leaf laying around and wanted to see how they would work with the pastels, so after the quick sketch-in, I filled in the vase with the liquid leaf.

I began with putting in the background, then adding to the vase using the same colors.  It was then that I decided to stay as limited in colors as I could and do the entire painting with just a few color choices. The next set of pictures shows the stages until the completion.

Take some time this week to honor a friend ~ past or present, but ideally one that is present. Make some new memories and show them just how much they're loved.