#2444 "Flippant Sunflowers"

I was called Flip Flop as a child as I was always running and tumbling and falling. This title is in memory of my childhood nickname and also in the happy and loose way I worked on this painting of the sunflowers. 

The word "flippant" also did something of a flip-flop shortly after it appeared in English in the late 16th century. The word was probably created from the verb flip, which in turn may have originated as an imitation of the sound of something flipping. The earliest meanings of the adjective were "nimble" and "limber." All of these meanings apply to me: the way I worked on the painting and the sunflowers themselves. Flippant also describes the subject matter as I flipped the image horizontally from the first go at them in when I painted #2439 "Wendy's Sunflowers". I simply wanted to have fun. I also wanted to use the abundant oils that I had squeezed out for my earlier sunflower paintings - waste not, want not. 

Sunflowers are the perfect inspiration during the shortest days and longest nights of the year as well as the darkest days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. A quiet period due to a pandemic apparently worked for Newton and Leonardo da Vinci. 

Quiet can be good when surrounded by nature and your thoughts.  

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#2443 "October Sunset on the Sunflowers"

I wanted to try this painting of a mature sunflower bloom in full afternoon sunlight again. "Sister Golden Hair" by America came on the stereo as I laid in the first bit of colour. The timing was perfect. 

I had already visited this inspiration in #2434 "October Sunflowers". I notice that my dyslexia comes through in the chronological numbers applied to my painting of the same sunflower blooms. 

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a small canvas and broad, rough brush strokes. I used a lot of paint too.

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#2442 "Summer Side Sunflower"

I wanted to try painting a younger sunflower bloom in full afternoon sunlight. I was thinking of the Gordon Lightfoot song and album the "Summer Side of Life" which was released in September 1971. Linda and I would see Gordon Lightfoot at Queens University. We also went to a Stevie Wonder Concert at Queens. Those were great performances. 

Life is made up of choices everyday. I strive to base my decisions solely on merit. The packaging is not what creates the way forward. It is important to choose wisely. I try to pick the happy, positive, creative and sunny side of life. Like the sunflower I turn toward the light. I have the solar panels to prove it. 

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a small smooth panel and broad, rough brush strokes. I used a lot of paint too. 

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#2441 "Sunflower Ringlets"

This is based on #2434 "October Sunflowers". I had the time and inclination to play with a different perspective on those sunflower blooms. I emphasized the sunflower ringlets. The drying and decaying petals of the sunflower turn into these droopy curls of colour. "Droopy" is an interesting English word. It can mean "gloomy" or "tending to droop". I intended these pendulous, wilts of petals to be happy even in their decay so this is a playful use of a word with multiple meanings. In hair, ringlets are also known as princess curls or corkscrew curls. I think the sunflower is beautiful with or without the ringlets. We just need to slow down to appreciate the natural world that surrounds us. 

I used a very smooth panel and applied lots of oil in bold strokes. Art should be fun too. 

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#2440 "Lessons from a Sunflower"

I watched these particular sunflowers closely expecting the large blossoms to follow the sun all day. The leaves and blossoms do indeed face the morning sun toward the east. These flowers followed the sun until noon and then basically paused in that orientation. I never saw the blossoms face truly toward the west. 

The sunflower seeds are really quite small but they grow into something wonderful and quite inspiring. The plants reached eleven feet tall. We all start small. The seeds need nurturing just like children. Light and water within a clean environment is all everything requires. We need more sunflowers in our garden. Politicians and developers could learn something from sunflowers. 

Sunflowers are a great thing to paint during the shortest days and the longest nights of the year. Sunflowers are especially inspiring during these dark COVID and political times. I turned the media off and surrounded the Singleton Sanctuary with nature. 

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a small and smooth panel along with broad, rough brush strokes. There is a lot of paint in these sunflowers as well.

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#2439 "Wendy's Sunflowers"

Wendy Banks is a proud, 6th generation farmer from Lyndhurst. Wendy's Country Market can be found at ​408 Fortune Line Road in the Rideau Lakes Township. To quote Wendy and to summarize how I feel, we are " In the middle of nowhere, and the centre of everything!" 

Wendy mailed out small packets of sunflower seeds in the COVID spring of 2020. We planted the three seeds that we received. Chipmunks got two of them but the survivor turned into a giant almost worthy of Jack and the Bean Stalk. A tape measure had it at ten feet tall and it still grew a few inches after that. I put a support tie on the thick stalk to prevent it from being blown over by the Singleton winds.

This painting of sunflower blossoms facing southerly is named after Wendy Banks. I would visit this inspiration again in #2444 "Flippant Sunflowers". Sunflowers are the perfect inspiration during the shortest days and longest nights of the year as well as the darkest days of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a small canvas and broad, rough brush strokes. I used a lot of paint too. I plan to do a series at different stages of growth and even decay. Life is good. 

"The sunflower is mine, in a way" said Vincent Van Gogh. I know that he would share though. I almost share my birthday with Vincent except that his was 100 years earlier than mine. 

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#2438 "Autumn Sunflowers"

This larger studio painting is based on #2436 "Sunny Day Sunflower". I loved the design of the smaller painting and thought that it very much deserved a larger format. The Tri Art canvases are the best surfaces that I had at the time. I hoped that my efforts would be deserving of the fine archival surface. In addition, I felt that #2437 "Linda's Sunflowers" needed at least one companion. There might even be more. It was a mix of sun and cloud outside with a chilly northerly breeze below freezing. A Nor' Easter storm was pounding Nova Scotia and Singleton was caught up in that circulation. I needed something to work on in the Singleton Studio. 

As I painted on Sunday December 6th, 2020, I got to thinking that this date could be the anniversary of Pearl Harbour. Remembrance Day and the memories of those recent paintings were still in my mind. In fact, I was a day early but the Japanese Navy would have been sneaking up on Pearl Harbour back in 1941. The United States were not in the war at that time although they had ample intelligence that the Japanese were planning a surprise attack. Some very diligent and competent military people had it all figured out but no one was listening. Would I be able to paint these sunflowers if our side had not won the war against the Axis aggression? It would have been a very different world for sure. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed December 7, 1941 as "a date which will live in infamy" and I never forgot that phrase. Canada declared war on Japan even before the United States responded to the attack. 

The COVID pandemic has certainly changed the world as well. We have decided to self-isolate for the duration and surround ourselves with nature and creativity. The life of a hermit artist is pretty much isolation anyway. I had canvas and oils enough to last several years. The Greatest Generation had fought and won the bloodiest, longest and largest war in history and I have them to thank for my freedom to paint. I will never forget. 

As I write these notes and remembrances as I paint, I think that they mimic the letters that Vincent wrote to his family - mainly his Brother Theo. Without those letters, the stories behind Vincent's art and thoughts would have been lost. Without Johanna Gezina van Gogh-Bonger, the Dutch editor and translator of those letters of the van Gogh brothers, all of it would have been lost. Johanna was the wife of Theo van Gogh, art dealer, and the sister-in-law of Vincent. She became the key player in the growth of Vincent's fame. Without Johanna, Vincent would have likely been unknown more like Johannes Vermeer – but that's another story. 

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#2437 "Linda's Sunflowers"

This larger studio painting is based on #2435 "Overcast Sunflowers". I loved the design of the smaller painting and thought that it very much deserved a larger format. The Tri Art canvases are the best surfaces that I had. I hoped that my efforts would be deserving of the fine archival surface. 

I described what I was painting to Linda but she suggested that they should be called "Wendy's Sunflowers". As I wrote in the description of my other sunflower paintings such as #2419 "September Sunflower", the seeds did come from Wendy Banks but this singular plant owed its existence purely to Linda. The chipmunks got two of the three seeds but not the single seed that produced this giant. 

This composition is comprised of a group of seven blossoms of various ages. That is odd. There is also a similarity with an assembly of artists whose work and legacy I admire. I would assign the largest bloom to Tom Thomson, followed by Lawren Harris and J.E.H. MacDonald. Other art patrons will certainly have their own opinions. There is actually an eighth bloom if one looks closely. It is peeking out from behind Lawren. One of the best complements I receive is from people believing that I could have been an eighth member of the Group of Seven. That is high praise but I am content with just trying to get better and being the hermit Group of One. 

When I showed Linda the progress on the painting after a few days of effort, she hesitated. She said she had to pick her words carefully. I guess artists are known to be sensitive. Linda said it looked like Vincent's sunflower paintings. Maybe Vincent was right when he remarked that the "the sunflower is mine, in a way." I was painting what I saw and felt which was possibly the same experience for Vincent more than a hundred years previous. Maybe everything has been done and said before but for me, it was a complement to think that my art reminded others of the work by Vincent. 

I had a tube of emerald green oil paint which I had purchased from Mario Airomi. It was a colour I rarely used but there are times when that hue is needed. This painting was one of those times. The tube from Mario had long been used up so I obtained a new tube of emerald green from Currys shipped to my Studio door. 

I signed this painting twice. In the lower right I scratched my name in the wet paint with a tooth pick and dotted the "i" with quinacridone red. In the bottom left I signed my name with a small brush in quinacridone red on the complementary colours of the sunflower leaf. 

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#2436 "Sunny Day Sunflower"

It was a sunny autumn day and the sunflowers were thriving. The Linda and the Sunflower Stalk was a real giant pushing eleven feet tall. The stalk at ground level was almost as thick as my wrist. A lady bug kept me company. The simple beauty of nature inspires me. The joys of nature can brighten any day. 

I decided that this little, rough gem needed a larger format so I picked out the finest canvas that I had and painted #2438 "Autumn Sunflowers". 

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