This painting was inspired by my garden flowers and antique bottle collection. Still lifes are one of my favorite subject matter to paint, and I love the bright colors of summer flowers!

I decided from the start to use some of my flower sketches of our larkspur plants and fire engine red petunias. I began by sketching the design on a piece of tracing paper, being able to edit shapes as I worked. I decided to enlarge the petunias to a much larger size so they wouldn’t be dwarfed by the bottles. Some sheet music for flute was cut up and added to the background.

Deciding it needed a bit more flowers in the background, I added some yellow daisies that seems to be floating or blowing by the wind behind the still life itself. Because the sheet music was too stark, I added a metallic copper wash over it.