Waterlily work in progress

I've decided to start on the background, this is due to the dark tonal values on the right. The waterlily has extremely delicate tones, so I needed a tonal guide of the overall composition, so the petals don't look too faint. The background is far from finished, I've just blocked in the basic colours and tonal values. I'm going to let this dry, then start work on the flower. Once I have most the detail of the flower I can work out how detailed the background needs to be, so it doesn't take away the focus from the flower.

Whilst this dries, I've another waterlily oil painting to start, so I'll get to that onto canvas tomorrow.

Next project

My next  project, or projects, I've two in mind. Both paintings are oil paintings of waterlilies. This one I've just put the oil paint skin on, which is a very dilute layer of paint. It's main function is to knock out the white canvas. The dimensions of this one are 16 x 12in, the other 10 x 10in, the small canvas is a close up of a waterlily. I got my inspiration this time at Kew Gardens, I'm very fortunate to have it on my doorstep, just a short bus journey away. In Kew there is the most spectacular glass house full of 

waterlilies, it's one of my favourite places in the gardens, it so peaceful.

Ponte Vecchio

I've put this on the shelf today, I've signed it, but not sure if it's totally finished, I need to ponder it and have a break from it. I'm pleased that I captured the illumination on the yellow walls and the reflection in the foreground. I need to live with the painting for a while to see if I want to pull any other elements out.