Gascon sun(flowers)

About a week after painting the Purple Haze lavender farm in my sketchbook, I found a photograph on The Good Life France (a Facebook page I follow) of a sunflower farm in Gascony. The photo has been sitting open on my computer desktop ever since, while I worked up my nerve to give it a try. Compared to painting the lavender, it was exponentially harder, since sunflowers and their foliage are so distinct in shape. I was particularly nervous about trying to convey the long-distance appearance of the sunflowers near the house vs. the close-up sunflowers at the front of the photo.

I don't think I did too badly; I wished, afterward, that I had left some pure white in the sunflower field as well as in the various greens of trees and bushes around the house, but I caught the distance thing better than I thought I might. As usual, I wanted this to be washier and looser than it came out, but it definitely has more of that quality than much of my work, so I'm satisfied.

Thanks to Sue Aran for the reference photo.

Gascon Sun
7.75x10.5 inches

140-lb. Fluid watercolor paper
Paul Jackson signature watercolors, plus Holbein for that bright spring green color whose actual name I can't recall at the moment!
Escoda #10 brush