Summer Sunflowers

Why plant sunflowers?

My dad planted two long rows of sunflowers last summer.  He thought he'd harvest them for the birds.  

They were absolutely gorgeous, and his plan worked.. sort of.  He didn't have to have to worry about doing the work of cutting them down and drying them to save the seeds.  The birds decided to save him the trouble.  They helped themselves to the seeds before he ever got around to harvesting them. 

The thing I loved about painting this was that I never opened a tube of green paint.  I had a huge blob of blue paint left over from the little boys shirt in the last painting.  And I had another huge blob of yellow that I'd squirted out to use up an old tube to use for the flowers.  I mixed those two and a little ochre to make all the greens.  (I love using things up!)

I had the hardest time with the actual petals.  I just haven't had that much practice with yellows to know just what to do without some trial and error.  Actually, I was pretty heavy on the "error" side for a while.  Each petal looked like a banana; they were all just too pretty.  It's hard for me to add that muddy, shady color that has to be there.

Who doesn't love sunflowers!  I love them!

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