Annabelle Hydrangea's Makeover

Here is a rather large plein air painting I did 5 years ago. Amazingly I remember doing it in one afternoon session and when the light changed, I pulled out another canvas and did another large painting. Considering my skill level at the time, I was very pleased with the outcome of both of them and the fact that I did 2 larger pieces in one day. They both have continued to hang somewhere in my house.

This one, Annabelle, is 30" x 24." The background "lavendar" color was the street seen behind them at the time. It did look lavendar gray to me in the bright light of high noon. In the remake I decided to leave it, but with some modification; I darkened it and it now has a bit more variation within the color. My main focus on the "revision" was to give more definition to the flowers themselves but once I got going, the whole thing got tweaked.  I did spend two hot humid afternoons, about 1.5 hours each, working on this painting in approximately the same spot. I do like that the flowers have more shape and weight to them - I lightened those in the shadow from the original, as they appeared very light and the value just wasn't as dark as I had originally painted them. The leaves just seem to be more alive now, as I have learned to stay away from white to lighten a color, unless of course, it is required. I still want to add some bees - the past weekend the bush was beaten down by heavy rains and the bees weren't out, so I will continue to watch for another opportunity. Luckily, these flowers stay on the bush a long while, even if they do turn chartreuse as they age.