I started this quite awhile ago. I already painted a picture with 3 balloons over grape vineyards. It is very colorful and has hung in my studio for years. I used the first version as a sample for a Paint Party at my house. My students struggled to duplicate what I had already done, and my canvas used to paint along, did not turn out very well.

When I took it out again to finish, I had already painted the main balloon over with white, as I did not like my design. I pulled out a small magazine photo I liked for the background, of a cottage among fields lined with rock walls. Kept some of the original painting, such as the sky, distance mountains and hills, making them more realistic by adding better shadows and light areas.

I put in more details in the foreground grape vines, and added a vintner's house. The model for the building is a two-story Mediterranean style country house that I used to live in.

The balloons are mostly of my own design. The main one I found a photo online of something I liked, then modified the style and used my favorite colors. The shading and highlighting turned out incredibly well; the balloon looks very three dimensional, which is what I wanted to achieve. I love this one so much, want to keep looking at it, and am so satisfied with how it turned out.

ZIRCON PRODUCTIONS

"sHARING THE BEAUTY OF THE WORLD AND GOD'S WORD THROUGH ART"