I recently received 2 beautiful bouquets of flowers.  They inspired me to do a painting of each one out of oil pastels.
They were a wonderful distraction from how I was feeling and helped to cheer me up.    Many Thanks.

I haven't been able to get out and enjoy all the spring blossoms due to a bad case of shingles.
I did manage to take a few pictures on my way home from the doctor's office and the last couple of days I have been trying to paint cherry blossoms to help brighten the day.

This boy with his dog look like they are ready for the new outdoor adventures that lay ahead of them.

The Cherry Blossom trees make a great background.

This is the painting I started while at High Park yesterday.  It was a perfect day to sit on a bench and paint the beautiful Sakura blossoms.  A Beautiful day n the park shared with good friends.
I added more pink today.

High Park, Toronto, ON is worth the drive to check out the beauty of spring.  The Japanese Cherry Trees are glorious this time of year.  All the pinkish white blossoms are in full bloom and stand out in contrast to the dark gnarly, knotted and twisted trucks and branches.  It's the quantity and the age of the trees that make them stand out.  
The cherry blossoms are not the only flowers in bloom in the park.   There are some of the other flowers shown below.   For the many other flowers I did not capture, the park kindly provided a large vase full of the park's fresh flowers, located by the Parkside St. entrance.   Please enjoy the slideshow below.    I will post the painting I started in the park later today or tomorrow.

These are 2 paintings that I had done a while ago and recently modified and I hope improved.   What do you think?