Last summer I took a watercolor class taught by local watercolorist Lucy Shirek. One of our projects was a sunflower, and part of the plant was supposed to be painted outside the border of the main painting. During one of my daily walks, I stopped by the nearby community gardens where giant sunflowers are grown and snapped some photos to use as my subject matter. Although I started this painting last summer, it was just this week that I finally felt it was finished. Here’s the final piece. It’s 9×9 inches at the blue edge.
Shirek teaches her students to create any color one needs from the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow. Those were the only colors I used in this piece. I like how the part of the plant that runs off the border gives the painting depth – like the sunflower kind of jumps forward toward me in space. I think it turned out pretty nice!
Rachel Imsland, Artist 