STEP 18 More Study Hall

It’s back to Study Hall today. I want to test my color combinations for the foreground arches, terrace and flowers before I actually paint them on the large canvas.

But let me get off the subject for just a moment. Someone asked me about the container for my Odorless Paint Thinner. It’s a plastic, one gallon water bottle we’ve cut the top off, leaving the handle. After several days of use a lot of paint residue accumulates in the bottom of the container. After sitting overnight we can pour off the clean thinner, leaving the yuck to be disposed of. Our garbage bags are held up by an aluminum walker. You can see the top of the walker in the picture above. Jack used this when he had cancer, which rendered his legs useless. Fortunately today he is cancer free with complete use of his legs. But we are still using his walker. We get 55 gallon drum liners from Home Depot for our garbage bags.

Back to the painting. Here is the finished study. I decided to rearrange the flowers on the terrace from my initial idea. Instead of putting the magenta and purple petunias in the foreground I moved them to the back of the terrace. Then planted the more brilliant geraniums in the front pots. The cooler hues of the petunias make them drop back, while the warmer cadmium reds of the geraniums move forward.

Below you can see the finished study in front of the big canvas. This placement allows me to judge the color combinations in the study to the completed sections of the larger painting. Tomorrow I will return to the big piece.

Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Mikki Senkarik

Website: http://www.senkarik.com Email: senkarik@senkarik.com