What's Up in the Studio- New Zinnia in Progress

Oh Zinnias, I just can't stop painting them- they always inspire me and here I am painting another!  I love these chartreuse ones paired with Black & Blue Salvia-I  just ADORE that color combination!  This painting is from a series of reference photos I took a couple of years ago for my "Green with Envy" painting but there were so many photos I wanted to use them again, here.

Much of this is just under painting, but you can get a basic idea of what it's going to look like:)  This canvas is the biggest I've ever worked with- it's 12" x 24" and a lot of the time, I work with it in my lap because my desk it just too small to accommodate two feet of canvas!

And I haven't added the ultramarine blue of the salvia yet- just their black throats, and again; under painting.....
Here's my reference; so you can see the blues

And here's the first painting I did from these photos:

 In this one, I changed the background from the turquoise that is my house, I really cannot remember now why, but I did and thus, struggled with it- first it was white, and then yellow (a brighter yellow)  and then gray and then white again until I finally laid in this soft yellow......for what ever reason, the background is usually the hardest part of any painting I do....weird, right?
This week, I had no time to do anything for Inspiration Avenue, but the emails have been pouring in all week from folks who did create something for the theme, "Celestial" -be sure to pop over there to see- as always, it's sure to be a gorgeous collection full of diversity and beauty!
For now, cheers!
Stephanie