I have memories from childhood of daisies in wild mountain fields. The vast expanse of white daisies shining in the green landscape always enamoured me. In those days, it never occurred to me that I would ever paint them. When I started painting, I learned to appreciate different colours, shapes and forms. Daisies fit well with other flowers in a bouquet. In the following painting from 2011, daisies have been painted with bright red poppies in a vase. I placed the daisies on a periphery in round and oval shapes.

And after a recent revision

Poppies in a Vase

A few paintings later, I saw a marked improvement in the daisies I painted. Daisies in a Vase gave me the opportunity to explore daisies in a wide variety of way; complete flower, partially hidden, looking top down, from a side and so on. I think, I was able to do justice to the flowers and depict them well. The centres of daisies looked more realistic and flowers have blurred edges forming part of the overall composition. The white daisies go well with the mauve, violet and purple irises and blue flowers. Also the background is dramatic.

Daisies in a Vase

The following painting is a landmark painting in my learning curve. This is the day that I decided to make my own paintings and not a copy. A copy would remain a copy for ever and there is no greater joy than creation of your own body of work. I painted the canvas in different tones of sap green and with a free flowing brush painted daisies on it varying the colour with each layer. The joy of making this painting is indescribable. It turned out to be a bright painting and I named it Dancing Daisies.

I wanted to learn to paint daisies in a field. The following painting is an attempt to do so. Tried to create a balance between the warm and cool colours. Started it with burnt sienna, then painted various greens and made many layers of the daisies. In the end added blue flowers to brighten it up.

I have to paint many more daisies before I perfect them. Life is a continuous journey of learning.