Flora, Flower Goddess

"Flora" is the roman goddess of flowers and the season of the coming of Spring.  

This pastel painting came from a photo taken at last October's Rennaissance festival (2012) in Huntersville, NC.  Selling floral head-wreaths, this lovely maiden agreed to pose for me, coyly looking out from armfuls of vibrant flowers.  I loved her expression and the riot of colors, and knew I had to paint this pose.

Working on a lovely grey-purple colored Art Spectrum paper that worked beautifully to enliven the bright warm tones to come, I started with her face in sharper contrast with some harder edges and let the edges soften away from her face.  There were hanging wreaths behind her that I edited, but let just a few strands of ribbon asymetrically fall behind her.  

This painting was challenging, but lots of fun!