Oxalis

Wood Sorrel (Oxalis) are some of my favorite plants. They have leaves that look like four-leaf clovers and taste like sour candy, because they're full of Oxalic acid. And they have lots of tiny, delicate flowers almost all year round. But my favorite thing about these plants is their seed pods, when the seeds are ripe and ready to go the pod explodes and launches itty bitty seeds all over the place.

Wood Sorrel leaves and seed pod, you can see the few seeds left that didn't get launched.

This painting didn't work out like I had planned, I was hoping to keep the background just in pencil. But the pencil looked too spotty to me, so I ended up using thick Torrit Grey paint instead.

Oxalis, unfinished,11x14 Claybord wood panel. I started the painting in pencil, and set up the shadows on the flowers. Then I got a flower blossom and matched the paint color to it, because the color in the photo was way off. 

Oxalis, detail, oil paint on 11x14 Claybord wood panel. 

Oxalis, finished, oil paint on 11x14 Claybord wood panel. 

Orchids and Wood Sorrel

My orchid painting is close to finished, only a few layers left to go and a background to sort out.

Phael, 8x10 inches, oil paint on Claybord panel, unfinished.

This painting is of flowers from my patio. Wood Sorrel (Oxalis) plants have small pink or yellow flowers, and are sort of edible, but they taste incredibly sour. I started this painting with a pretty complete pencil drawing, seen in the first picture, and the paint is going on top of the drawing. 

Oxalis, 11x14 inches, oil paint on Claybord panel, unfinished, before. 

 This is after the first layer of color on the flowers, I need to do something to darken the background next.

Oxalis, 11x14 inches, oil paint on Claybord panel, unfinished, after.