Noonday Onions

Another painting I completed while on my little New Mexico trip was this one of some Noonday Onions that Debbie Cannatella brought along. We did the setup on the back porch and the wind almost did us in. The actual tablecloth was red and white check, but we wanted to use the complimentary colors of the onions with blue. Of course, I had to throw in some purples and magenta's although I didn't actually see any of those hues in the setup. We took a few pictures for references as the sunlight shifts around too much to be actually painting the scene plein air.
There were darling little hummingbirds (Rufus and Broadtails) buzzing us all the time and it was great fun. We hung two glass feeders about 5' from our work tables and we were able to get really good visuals. The little Rufus male was very territorial and wanted both feeders...all the time. We fed mule deer every day and they were so accoustomed to people they just stood and looked at us as we poured the corn/grain off the porch railings on to the ground. On my last morning, a Stellar Jay flew by and that was one bird that I really wanted to see. Seems as though he was telling me goodbye..good birdie.