sunny sunflower

This sunny sunflower original oil painting is 6″x6″ square, and painted on a flat panel
It's available, unframed, for $100 here.
You can see more of my original paintings here. Enjoy!

sunshine

This original oil painting brimming with sunshine, because we all could use a little more of that, is 6"x6" on ⅛" gesso panel and is available, unframed, for $100 in my Etsy shop here.

sunflowers original oil painting

This is my morning fun for today, painted before the sun came up. I have so much trouble sleeping that I might as well just get up and paint. At least it's productive, right?

This original 6"x6" oil painting on ⅛" gesso panel is available, unframed, for $120 here.

And here is a time-lapse video of the painting, sorry my head was a bit in the way!

sunflowers

A bouquet of sunflowers to brighten your day!
This 8"x8" original oil painting on ⅛" panel is available, unframed, for $150 here.

Sunshine in the forecast

Sunshine in the forecast...indefinitely!

Sunflowers, in all their colorful glory, are a happy sight to behold—but there’s more to their nature than just beauty. The multipurpose plants deliver healthy snacks, useful oil, and birdseeds.

1. THEY’RE NATIVE TO THE AMERICAS.

Like potatoes, tomatoes, and corn, the cheerful plants didn’t originate in Europe. They were cultivated in North America as far back as 3000 BCE, when they were developed for food, medicine, dye, and oil. Then, they were exported to the rest of the world by Spanish conquistadors around 1500.

2. THEY WERE BROUGHT TO RUSSIA BY ROYALTY.

Tsar Peter the Great was so fascinated by the sunny flowers he saw in the Netherlands that he took some back to Russia. They became popular when people discovered that sunflower seed oil was not banned during Lent, unlike the other oils the Russian Orthodox Church banned its patrons from consuming. By the 19th century, the country was planting two million acres of sunflowers every year.

3. THEIR POPULARITY STANDS THE TEST OF TIME.

Russian immigrants to the United States in the 19th century brought back highly developed sunflower seeds that grew bigger blooms, and sparked a renewed interest in the native American plant. Later, American sunflower production exploded when Missouri farmers began producing sunflower oil in 1946, when Canada unveiled a mechanical seed-crushing plant, and in the 1970s, when consumers looked for low-cholesterol alternatives to animal fats.

4. THEY NEED A LOT OF RAYS AND ROOM.

The flowers not only look like the sun, they need a lot of it. They grow best with about six to eight hours a day but more is even better. They can grow as tall as 16 feet, although many varieties have been developed to thrive at different heights. Flowers planted too close together will compete and not blossom to their full potential.

5. THEY TRACK THE SUN.

Sunflowers display a behavior called heliotropism. The flower buds and young blossoms will face east in the morning and follow the sun as the earth moves during the day. However, as the flowers get heavier during seed production, the stems will stiffen and the mature flower heads will generally remain facing east.

6. THE WORLD’S TALLEST SUNFLOWER REACHES 30 FEET AND 1 INCH.

In the summer of 2014, Veteran green-thumb Hans-Peter Schiffer toppled the Guinness World Record for third year in a row. The local fire brigade lent its help in measuring the sunflower, which required its own scaffold.

7. THEY HAVE A HISTORY OF HEALING.

In Mexico, the flowers were thought to sooth chest pain. A number of Native American tribes agreed with the plant’s curing properties. The Cherokee utilized an infusion of sunflower leaves to treat kidneys while the Dakota brought it out to sooth “chest pain and pulmanery troubles.” 

8. THEY HAVE TRAVELED TO SPACE.

In 2012, U.S. astronaut Don Pettit brought along a few companions to the International Space Station: sunflower seeds. Petit regularly blogged about his budding friendship and shared photos of the gardening process. 

9. THEY ARE ACTUALLY THOUSANDS OF TINY FLOWERS.

Each sunflower’s head is made of smaller flowers. The petals we see around the outside are called ray florets, and they cannot reproduce. But the disc florets in the middle, where the seeds develop, have both male and female sex organs, and each produce a seed. They can self-pollinate or take pollen blown by the wind or transported by insects. 

10. THEY CAN BE USED AS SCRUBBING PADS.

Once the flower heads are empty of seeds, they can be converting into disposable scrubbing pads for jobs too tough for your cleaning tool.  

These are a few fun facts about sunflowers. 

This 6"x6" original oil painting on ⅛" gesso panel is available, unframed, for $120 in my Etsy shop here.

dreamer

Such a happy way to begin a Friday!

unmistakable

Busy morning. I ran three miles with my friends, got my daughter off to school, made lunch for the gang here at work, started the laundry, loaded the dishwasher, and painted this beautiful sunflower. Sunflowers are unmistakable, everyone knows a sunflower. So appropriately named and so lovely. Last night I listened to this podcast promo that I just loved from Unmistakable Creative about following your passion. You just have to find time to fit it in. Enjoy, if you have a minute. It's a great inspiration for your day! This original oil painting is 8"x8" and available, unframed, for $100. Click to Bid Here is a detail shot...

wild abandon

I finished up a commissioned painting this morning with a little bit of time left over. So I painted a still life that I had set up in my studio. And I painted with wild abandon. It's a little along the vein of Lisa Daria and Angela Moulton. I really admire their work. I'm sure they don't really paint with wild abandon. They just make it look that way, and they make it look so easy. It's definitely not. Fun? Absolutely! This 6"x6" unframed painting is available for $75. Have a great day!

confidence

confidence noun con·fi·dence \ˈkän-fə-dən(t)s, -ˌden(t)s\ : a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something : the feeling of being certain that something will happen or that something is true. Because I get overwhelmed with my goal setting (I have more goals than I have time to write down) I'm going to try choosing one goal per month and concentrating on that one goal. Confidence. Important and so vital for creating artwork and following your passion. Wishing you a month filled with bright confidence! This 6" x 6" painting is available for purchase and sold unframed.

sunny days ahead

This is a commissioned painting. Thanks to all of my great friends for being so very supportive of my passion!

jeffy

I painted this for friends who lost their son several years ago. I can't even image what that would feel like. I hope to never find out. So my friend, Brian, asked me to paint something with a baseball and a sunflower, or as they call it a "son flower," to give to his wife for Jeffy's birthday. They have created a baseball field in Jeffy's memory. You can check it out here. A really nice story. A really nice family. I hope this painting makes them smile and think of him.

Sunflowers from Roots!

These beautiful sunflowers are from Roots Country Market here in Lancaster, PA. Only open on Tuesdays, it's a place I went often as a child. There is a very eclectic mix...of products for sale, stand holders and of patrons. Very entertaining, for sure! The black flowers are so beautiful, I love the subtle colors. SOLD

sunflower two

I painted another sunflower since the last one was such fun, this time with a palette knife instead of a paintbrush. Let me know what you think of it! Available for purchase 5"x5", $80 unframed.

sunflower

I painted this sunflower for a Daily Paintworks challenge. Love painting sunflowers! I may do a really big one next. You can check them all out at Daily Paintworks. This painting is 5x5 $80 unframed.