Cherry Holidays???

I suppose I should start the post by saying that I have been lazy, but I don't think I have. I just haven't gotten around to blogging ;-) I have been spending time thinking about a new painting. The painting will hang above the fireplace, so obviously, it needs to be somewhat decent... and I feel it needs to follow the theme... so I have reverted back to the days of old when I was first starting out in painting and really exploring all things that I found interesting. In particular, I am going back to trees. In the past, I did a couple paintings with black and white of a tree branch that I was particularly enthralled with. In the case of the new paintings, I will be painting a few cherry tree branches in black and white, but just for fun, I am going to challenge myself by throwing in a hint of color on the cherry blossoms. I know that I have gone on and on in the past about how I don't like flower paintings, but I think that the blossoms are integral to the branches. Otherwise the branches could be any other tree branches. Right?

As is my way when starting a piece that is going to have to require quite a bit of details to create a realistic effect, I have been looking at hundreds of cherry blossom tree images. And then I sketched out what I wanted for my painting:I decided to do the painting in oils. I think I am doing this for 2 reasons. The first reason would be that the oils take quite a while to dry and that will give me time to work with the shading. The second reason is that I am leaving town in a week for a month of holidays and didn't want to get obsessed with finishing an acrylic painting before I leave. I will work on the valuable skill of patience - my gift to myself!

Anyhow, I feel like sharing the painting in progress: Day 1

Day 2 (not to be mistaken with the next day, but rather the second day I worked on it)