These four pieces were all wonderful challenges to me in terms of colour or detail-  or both!  Somehow,  somewhere,  all those books and articles I read about colour came together without me realizing it and voila`!  It was like a rainbow going off in my head!  I knew exactly how to get the colours I wanted!

Calla Soup was such an amalgamen of shapes-  nearly wicked-appearing.   The challenge was to use neither white in the blooms,  nor black in the soup bowl, and still get the full range of values AND keep the colours subtle so the shadows held interest.  I think I succeeded.   This piece is awaiting an appreciative home.

Cobalt Callas is currently my entry in The Susan K Black Florals competition.   I am usually leery of entering competitions,  but very good artist friends have bugged and nagged and generally made themselves pests about it,  so I will. 

Gingered Cobalt was my first attempt at painting the detail on a ginger jar-  so intricate,  so complex-  so difficult!!  I knew better than to try for absolute accuracy in the pattern,  but thought I could,maybe, "fake it".  Eventually,  I figured out just how to do that, squiggling in strokes and dashes whcih gave the impression of the shining gold patterning on the jar.  This piece is in the private collection of K. Kenser, Olympia, Washington,  who gave me the ginger jar.

Ginger? Or Maryanne?  was just plain fun-  which is probably where the name came from.  By this time,  the patterning was not such a chore,  and I was enarmored with the two very similar, but differing shapes of the two large items,  and the perfect foil the smaller lid gave the whole composition.  This piece resides in the offices of Darren Hart, Esq, in Virginia.