Sunflower

One of the great benefits of the Alaskan summers is that there is a lot of daylight. It allows our short growing season to produce some truly astounding produce and flowers.

Before painting this sunflower, I was browsing through photos looking for inspiration for my next painting when I saw the reference photo I ended up using for this painting. The photo was taken in a garden at the Alaska State Fairgrounds, and was one many that I could have used for a painting on various subjects. What was special about this one was the bumble bee on top of it, flying from flower to flower. I knew I had to paint it.

Painting this sunflower is one of the hardest things I’ve done. The one thing my photo didn’t quite have was a good definition of the center of the flower, which meant I had to reference other photos to get a better idea of what the center of a sunflower should look like. The angle of the bumblebee is also a little odd in that the legs on the bottom side of the bumblebee are actually tucked in underneath it because of the angle. So no, it’s really not missing a set of legs!

It’s a painting that always reminds me of the end of summer and the Alaska State Fair.