A Cyclamen - not there yet...

So here's what I painted on Thursday: a cyclamen. Or, part of a group of cyclamens in the corner of our dining room. While I was working on it, I thought it was kind of pitiful - crude shapes, garish, unsubtle colors; so I only worked on it for an hour & a quarter, planning to save some of my painting time on it for some future day, when maybe I've gotten a bit more experience with plants and foliage. Getting any variation and life into the green of the leaves was a challenge I didn't think I was making any progress on, and working with light colors over the wet green paint, to try to get the details of the pattern on the leaves, was also difficult. I enjoyed it, all the same, even though I rather despised the results, and I'm very glad my judgements didn't interfere with my pleasure in the process.

About an hour later, when I looked at it again, it didn't look nearly as hopeless as I'd thought earlier. It's still unfinished, of course, and I don't know if I'll finish it; and if I work more on it, I don't know how much closer it will get to the beauty of these cyclamen leaves, and their flowers. But, hmmm.

At this point, I don't expect to sell this. But if it catches your enthusiasm, and you'd especially like me to finish it, let me know!