The hillsides in my neighborhood are filled with balsamroots in full bloom through most of April and May. Balsamroots — a wildflower native to the North American west —are members of the sunflower family. Their season is usually short, but Idaho’s wet spring extended their blooming season by several weeks. On one of my sunset walks, I photographed a small stand of balsamroots on a hill west of the house. Sunset illuminated the entire hillside, which lit the petals into a russet-gold. A few silver lupines lurked in the background, the sunset turning their bluish blossoms to violet.
In this piece, I wanted to capture the beauty and simplicity of one of my favorite wildflowers. Each flower appeared to be oriented in a slightly different direction. So, in a way, I had the chance to portray the flower in various “poses.”
I’m slowly coming to grasp the nuances of oil pastel on canvas. I’m finding the canvas to be a very thirsty medium, requiring more pastel than an equivalent area of paper. The first several passes would only give a flat appearance. For me to achieve any dimensional texture required third and fourth rounds of color, where I had to press & drag the pastel to get the color to mound.
