Watching for a storm...

A week of high heat, and tomorrow it's supposed to be 20º lower - which means a significant front coming through in a short period of time - which leads to maybe storms! So, with one eye out the window to the west, and the other on the screen, here's another installment on the 'what and how do we see' series.

If you've checked out any of my work, you know I'm not much for the photorealism school of painting. But I'm also not so very interested in the abstract. Frankly, I can't really wrap my mind around turning abstract concepts into shapes and colors. The only headway I can make with abstract work is 'I like it' or 'I don't like it'. I'm still working on that, though.

Just heard a bit of thunder in the distance.

So, I've got an image: forefront flowers (shasta daisies and purple coneflowers) middle ground a grassy drive, and background an 'a' shaped white garage. Farthest out, trees against a light sky. Left side, brick building.

How to paint this without being too picky (which just kills my paintings) or too non-representational, meaning just large blocks of color and light/dark?

What did I see in this scene that I want to communicate?

The beauty of the colors of the flowers and sky. The green of the grassy drive and the white/dark of the garage door and the silhouetted trees. But not only that.

The delicacy of the flowers. They bloom and die in such a short time. This whole scene is a moment only. Even the very next day this entire image will be different with different shadows and light and perhaps grass that has browned in the heat wave.

Tomorrow I'll try.