Practicing, having fun

This is something I painted this afternoon on my illustration board, sort of taking a cue from the crazy piece I last posted. It's not nearly so colorful, but what is important to me now is that I feel comfortable painting this way. I like working on a white board, and I did this with four acrylic colors and one brush. I've always been attracted to calligraphic art, Japanese in particular-the post-impressionists borrowed heavily from Japanese postcards. So this may turn into a poster with script, more background-but I was very pleased with the flowers. I used a photo of dried roses as a reference, but made up most of the composition. I like the gestural feel of the flowers. They don't possess photographic realism, but the "pose" if you will surely denotes death. This to me is much more enjoyable than straining to capture intense realism. I can tell the years and years of painting have given me a very relaxed and natural brush style, if I let myself paint this way. So we'll see. I'm going to continue working and seeing where it all goes. I think my artistic bent is more as a designer than a painter.