Summer Exuberance
Jean Ellis Newman

The precise thread of inspiration leading to this painting is as curvilinear as the image itself. It started with a desire to create something colorful to hang on a large, gray-hued wall in the open meeting space in our office building. Something in a sunny yellow seemed like a good idea.

After rejecting several ideas, a display of perky sunflowers at the grocery store beckoned. Visions of Vincent van Gogh's acclaimed series of sunflowers paintings simultaneously inspired and intimidated me. Inspiration won. I purchased half a dozen stems for reference and painted this sunflower as a study in circles, dots, and triangles.