Easter

6 x 6" original oil

commission

In January I met with my sister-in-law who is going to be coming out with an Easter product next year. She asked for a lily painting as part of this new product's development, and we collaborated a bit to come up with this finished product. 

With the light shining through the lily, it feels more majestic, and since this is an Easter piece, symbolically I like that the light is coming through the lily and the lily is pointed slightly upward. 

I bought two stems of Easter lilies a couple of weeks apart and took over a hundred photographs in different angles of light and different blooming stages. Lilies are surprisingly hard to get a good angle on as their petals are "spidery" and can be very asymmetrical. 

Last Thursday, blessedly, the morning sun was strong and there was no wind, so with my left hand I held the lily up to the light, and squinting into oblivion I looked through my view-finder to snap the photo with my right hand. In the photograph I used, my hand was all over the reference and the stem created a really awkward shadow. Lucky me, I got to just paint that stuff out.