"3 Vases" - Painting from real flowers

I wanted to paint flowers again but I didn't want to paint from a photo, another painting or a video.  So I went to Kroger and bought their least expensive bouquet of fresh flowers.  I think it was only $5.00.  I looked around my house and found a set of three vases for them.  I love multi-colored things.  So when I saw this trio of vases several years ago, I immediately bought them.  I arranged the flowers in the vases, set them on a little table and took some photographs.

I liked the dark purple flowers and the daisy/mum flowers.  I didn't like the white flowers.  So I decided not to include them in the painting.  The first step was to block out the painting.  I have no idea if that's what other artists call this step, but it's what I do.  For this painting, I determined where the table and the background would be.  I cut out a shape for the vases and traced around it with chalk.  I knew there was no way I'd get three vases the same general shape and size by drawing them free-hand.

After looking at it, though, I didn't like the blue background.  I changed it to a peach color.

I liked the peachy background and decided to keep it.  Later, I would second-guess that decision.  I did some shading and highlighting and then started adding flowers.

What I found is that the yellow flowers did not show up well against the peach-colored background.  I wasn't willing to re-do the background, though, since there were so many flower petals that I'd have to work around.  So I used deeper yellows and oranges for shading to make the daisies show up a little more clearly.  Below is the final painting.  I entered this painting into a competition - a very small competition.  I had to be out of town because my mother was sick.  So a friend entered it for me - the Williamson County FCE Cultural Arts Day competition.  I think there were only maybe 3 or 4 entries - maybe not even that many.  I don't know for sure since I wasn't there.  This painting was entered into the decorative painting category, and it won second place!  Maybe there were only two paintings!  :-)

"Three Vases"
(acrylic on canvas, June 2016)

This is my first completely original painting, and I'm quite pleased with it.  I know it's not fine art and I will probably look at it in years to come, cringe,  and think it is completely amateurish.  However, I AM an amateur, and I really like this painting, and I'm proud of it because I think it shows how very far I've come in less than two months of painting.  Two months ago I would never have imagined I could paint something even half that detailed.  I plan on hanging "3 Vases" in my home.