Rhododendron Morphed

I did this painting last year using the colors of a rhododendron bush outside my hotel room in Mendocino.  I had just received some bad news about a dear friend who was diagnosed with metastatic cancer.  I needed to channel the sadness and I thought I would do an "Edges" painting based on the colors of this beautiful bush.

So, I did the painting.
And I looked at it, displayed it at Open Studios 2015 and while the colors were accurately portrayed, I felt it was kind of a nothing painting.
I discussed it at my artists' group meeting.  They didn't agree with me that it was a nothing painting. But, I needed to make some changes.

Rhododendron 2015

So, I did.  Here is the result.
One of the questions I asked myself was could I make an interesting painting based on accurate colors of my subject?  I think that depended on the subject.  In this case, it was a rhododendron which  had specific colors.  In a painting, I didn't think it was successful at least in this style.
When I took the essence of the color pink and thought about what makes pink happy, I came up with yellows and grays.
Now this painting makes me happy.

Rhododendron, Morphed  2015
2 1/2 ft X 5 ft

I have a smaller 20 in X 20 in Rhododendron in the original colors, that I will keep to remind me of the colors used.