Franken Flowers in Oil Pt.1
Doing the best I can with my limited paint colors and painting experience to capture this idea.
Gramma Mina
Home of the Midnight Gardener
Growing vegetables in January in Idaho. At least there is no snow on the ground.
Green House (mostly completed)
As the cold began to settle in we put the wrap on the green house. It is all done except for a handful of finishing touches and the floor.
From humble beginnings…
To framed… 
To all but needing a door…
and here with a lot of help from Austin, is the food machine, I mean flowering paint garden.
Trying to capture the image in my mind
I awoke a couple of weeks ago to an image in my mind, it was green, with yellow bars. Some sort of military rank insignia. It stuck with me as something bold, something to be shown. I carried the image with me awhile, then researched it online until I found what I believe it was.
From there I set to sketching it out in the sketchbook, to see if I could grasp the lines properly to put it on canvas. It took awhile as it usually does, but finally I was able to get it close enough for myself and colored it in.
Then I realized though there are greens aplenty, I hadn’t spent much time sampling them, after all, when 95% of the items growing in the yard have some sort of green, where do you start?
I spent the next 30 minutes or so roaming the backyard trying various plants at random or because their petals had been particularly nice, so why not their leaves?
After a bit I found ones that would do the trick, or at least allow me to start.
The yellow, which I have been getting from our neighbor across the streets yard is now running in short supply. I had to harvest some more and took what remained of the neighbors offering.
So does it equal the image in my mind?
Yes, it has the principal, the balance, the power I was looking for and no, it is neither as crisp or real as the one in my mind, but these are the steps I took to try to get to it.
I originally started this project around the first of September, and now finally decided to get it posted as Veteran’s Day comes to an end.
Purple Spec(ta)tre
This image came to me one night as I drifted off to sleep. We had been reading Terry Prattchet’s “Mort” a fabulously fun read. I would like to say this wasn’t influenced at all by the book, but there’s really no way it wasn’t, so I guess we’ll call this my tribute to “Mort”
From the image in my mind came a simple sketch
Then colored in with pencil to get a feel for what kind of colors I might need to find.
I collected various flowers from the garden and brought them in.
I spread them out to see the colors on the canvas. I lay the torn petals out in a stream from his eye, just how later I would cast his vision on to a flower. This is one of my favorite images.
Filling in the background blues.
The rest of the blues for the background completed. I really enjoyed this part because instead of using the swirl effect I had done thus far, I tried streaking the flowers across the canvas. I enjoy the flow it gave to the painting.
Nearly Finished
A close up on the eye
This was where it sat for quite some time, I used a berry, don’t recall which kind at the moment to get the red and quite by accident it took on a heart shape.
I maybe should have stopped here, but there were two pieces I desperately wanted to add to this piece. A vibrant red for the flower, I may or may not launch into a multi page epic about how difficult a good red is to find. For now, suffice it to say, it is a lengthy subject.
Second, I wanted to add a layer of shimmer to his robe and maybe the night sky. I had intended to do this by finishing it, spraying the sealer on it and then running the White Hollyhock across it to give it that iridescent quality it gives so well…
However, that failed. I don’t think I did any damage to the overall painting with the attempt, but I could see it was having an undesired effect.
I am happy with the final piece, but no so much the red.
Here is a close up on the flower
And lastly, I thought this might be interesting. This is the back of the canvas, where I often prep a batch of petals for painting on the front of the canvas or try out something I am not sure of how it will look. 
Fall Fade, Where oh where have the colors gone?
“With a chill in the air the colors retreat, our time so short, our time so sweet. Things are drying, things are dying, soon I won’t be Scrying.”
It is getting tough to find good colors now, many plants have stopped blooming and others, their petals and parts are drying out, their luster lost for another year.
It is mid March and I have painted very little in the last 4-6 weeks, not because of the fall fade, but primarily because my free time has been tied up working on the greenhouse, which is nearing completion, at least enclosure.
The frame is complete and we have the plastic warming in the sun, with plans to get it on a little later today and then comes all of the finishing touches. We ended up finding a UV coated tarp from a company called Tarpaflex that seems like it will make a great cover. It is thick and strong and UV coated. Pictures coming as soon as I get a chance.
Looking for red…
I have been working on one particular piece this week that I am currently calling Purple Spect(ta)re, it is almost finished except I can’t find a good red. There are lots of red flowers in our garden and around, but none of them give a real red color on the canvas, most turn purple or at best some form of burgundy.
I’ve done some research and found a few sites that talk about plant dyes but most of them require processing to get to the color and that isn’t what Scrying is all about for me.
I have turned to berries to try and find the red and found something that kind of works in what Lisa refers to as an Oregon Berry, I don’t know if that is its real name or not, but since I don’t know the names of most flowers I refer to her expertise to tell me what it is that I am messing with most of the time.
The Oregon Berry did give me a bit of a red, but also a brown, it was quite bizarre the way it turned out, but strangely it worked, at least enough for me to be satisfied with it, but now its effects have left me needing a black, which I haven’t come across in anything I have used thus far.
That being said, for those that come here looking for information on plant dyes, I’ll pass along these links that I found that give recommendations on how to get various colors by boiling and other processing methods.
http://www.pioneerthinking.com/crafts/crafts-basics/naturaldyes.html
http://autonopedia.org/crafts_and_technology/Fabric_and_Dyes/List_Of_Plant_Dyes_By_Colour.html
And this book that seemed to be specifically for those of you wanting to die yarns, etc
Colours from Nature, Bobbi A McRae, Storey, 1993
Updated Blue Eyed Beast
Before I sealed B.E.B. I decided I didn’t care for his eye and so I messed with it some more. In some ways I like the eye better and in some ways I don’t.
Original
New Version(and yes I need to get better lighting for more uniform pics, I was excited and lazy. This was shot in sunlight, the other with incandescent.)
Close-up Old Eye
Close-up New Eye