"Misery Loves Company", 24x24, oil on board

"Misery Loves Company", 24x24, oil on board

Last week after I finished the commissioned painting of the sunflowers, I had a lot of paint left over on my palette. Since these were colors I don't normally use, I wanted to get rid of them! I wondered what the painting would look like if I changed the petals, and made the flowers droop instead of standing upright. This was the result. They all look miserable, poor things! Save the little bud in the top left who still has her face to the sun. God bless her naivety, she has no clue that she's doomed!

So I got to thinking about flowers in general. They have feelings , too, I'll bet. One day they are blowing in the field with the wind at their back and the sun on their heads, and the next minute someone comes along, picks them, and that's the end of all that glorious freedom! Suddenly they find themsleves traumatized by being sliced from their mothering root system, and then they find themselves stuck together, probably with some fellow flowers whose company they don't even care for, and with nothing to look forward to but the slow and inevitable decline of their freshness and beauty.

But just like Elton John sang in The Lion King, I guess that is the circle of life, isn't it?

And now you know why you shouldn't paint when you're in a bad mood! My snarkiness last week is written all over this painting! That should also be a lesson to me why I should not paint when I get a migraine.

I'm still learning...

Circle of Life lyrics:

From the day we arrive on the planet
And blinking, step into the sun
There's more to see than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done
There's far too much to take in here
More to find than can ever be found
But the sun rolling high
Through the sapphire sky
Keeps great and small on the endless round

It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life