This is a recent commission that was to be similar to my painting, "Sleepyheads with Fruit", which sold some time back. Whenever I am asked to do a commission of a painting that I have already done, I become very worried since I know I can never replicate exactly something that I've done before. In this case, rather than sit there and worry about it, the first order of the day was to go out and find sunflowers for the set-up.
I quickly discovered that sunflowers must be out of season since all I saw were an abundance of tulips, hydrangeas and other spring-like flowers. I finally found a store that had sunflowers but they were very different from the ones I had used for "Sleepyheads with Fruit" which had big, dark brown centers. You can see the two different set-ups below.
Above is my set-up for "Goldilocks and the Two Pears". Below was the set-up for "Sleepyheads with Fruit":
I finally opted to go somewhere in between the two and made the centers darker than the ochre ones I had purchased, but less dark than the ones for the first set-up.
Recently, I went to my hairdresser and told her that I didn't like my last hair cut. I showed her photos of how my hair had looked when she first cut and shaped it back in the fall and told her that I wanted her to do the exact same cut again. After an hour of the silent treatment (very unusual for this gregarious young hairdresser!), Lanka finally turned around and said to me angrily in her cute Russian accent, "How would you like it if I asked you to paint the same painting exactly the same way again?"
I totally get it now. Sigh.
