Holly hocks finished

I took a few pictures of some holly hocks that were growing close to my home last summer.
They were amazingly beautiful.  I actually saw them for the first time while I was passing them in my car, and I made mental note to come back and take some photos.  I don't usually paint flowers, and I've been trying to paint more from life, but these flowers just needed to be painted.

Chuck Taylors progress pics

Started another small 8X10 painting.

Here I am trying to sketch things out and blocking in some value.

...and this is as far as I got with the time I had on the first night.

Here is where I got last night...hope I can keep going and still make it better. I would like to loosen it up a bit, maybe try to add some subtle color into this. We'll see.

This is how it turned out. I'm pretty happy with a few aspects of this painting...just need to keep working and I'll get better. I have a friend that used to say, you can't even call yourself a painter until you've painted 100+ pieces.  I may still have a ways to go, but I'll get there.