Artist Statement

I paint with a plein air group that meets weekly from May to October. We visit the Lesher Poultry Sunflower Field every year. Each year the field is in a different location and there is no shade at most of the locations. The field in this painting was located next to a small hill with a row of trees at the top. On the day we painted there, it was oppressively hot, so along with a friend we climbed the hill to enjoy some shade from the trees as we painted. We hoped the owner of the property the hill was on wouldn’t object. He came by later and did not fuss.

This sunflower field painting is a rare one for me because I was looking over the field instead of being on the edge or in the middle of it. I used several different shades of yellow and gold pastels to indicate the huge field while showing some individual sunflowers in the foreground. One of my main goals was to capture the feel of the heat making the day hazy and wilting the flowers.