This is one of a series of daily paintings in oils and I hope you enjoy this project. These will soon be available on a Silent Auction on my website

This title amuses me because it feels as though I painted it with Integrity (honesty)! I had seen Honesty in people’s homes in arrangements and in gardens when it was green, but I never knew much more than that. (I’ve never seen it in South Africa.) Anyway I visited my friend Maggie and she had a whole lot that was dried and she showed me how to peel the outer layer and reveal the beautiful tranluscent ovals. Peeling Honesty is a bit like popping bubblewrap – its addictive!
and a nugget:
This is an added extra to the daily painting – a technique, background information or a story.
It’s important to me to get nice straight horizons and standing up at an easel using a thick brush with oils makes it tricky. So I use a ruler and gently lay it – even on thick wet paint – curved side downwards and draw a line with the paintbrush. The important thing is that when painting the edges of a horizon and vertical, that they are not hard-edge and mechanical, so I smudge them a bit with my finger or allow a bit of that initial painted line to show through. Below is the underpinting (tonal sketch) and you can see that I even used a ruler for the bottle and its reflection.
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