This painting began with a simple yellow vase of colorful Zinnias, a wooden jewelry box that my grandmother gave me fifty-five years ago and some red and yellow peppers. I knew in the beginning that I wanted to paint the colorful flowers against cobalt blue drape. The only thing in the house that I could find that is cobalt blue is a linen sundress. So I pinned it to the wall. As I sketched the scene, I realized that I wanted more "things," so I kept adding objects until the shapes of the objects, the shadows and the negative spaces gave me an exciting composition. I added a sentimental dried red rose, some brown onions because they filled the space nicely and a table in the background. And still, nearly finished with the painting, I added one more object–the napkin in the lower right. Fnally, I liked the composition. Below is the palette used for this painting. Kathleen Elsey