Hollyhocks with Marley

This may be done, or not. I am going to live with it for a few days. I love it mostly, though still working on the green shadow sections on the lower right. I am pleased with the birds, bird house and really happy with the way I captured Marley. He is always so curious about everything

and birds always stop him in his track. This is a fantasy garden, as I imagine my own hollyhock garden that I am planning to plant this spring in rememberance of Dad. He loved Hollyhocks among other flowers in his garden.

I did the post out of sheet music and the birds out of dictionary pages. The hollyhocks are cut from fabrics. I found a great source for scraps at our local quilt shop. They sell $5 bags of scraps that you can pick through and stuff in bags.. sandwich bags mind you, so I crammed as much as I possibly could. The orange fabric was from a pair of capris I found at the thrift shop and even used the fabric covered buttons from the capris to add into the painting. I liked the way the

patterns of the fabric created more interest and texture to the piece.

Here's a closer look:

I took a bunch of photos of Marley to get the perspective right for this painting. Trying to get him from the back looking up was a trick, but I finally managed it. I like the angle of him.. gives the painting a sense of curious and I like that energy in this piece.

hmmm.. will see if I go any further or not.

ta