Unexpected Pleasure

"Unexpected Pleasure"  12" x 9" Oil on Oil Primed Linen Panel

I was walking Violet one of my neighbors was trimming his Peony bushes. He offered me as many as I liked. Boy they smell wonderful.
I brought them home, gathered them in a clear vase and set them the railing of my deck.
Painted right there. I've done just a couple of paintings with flowers as the subject. What an intricate flower, the Peony!
I really concentrated on simplifying.  
Here are some progress shots.  I don't normally approach a painting this way, toning the canvas, wiping out the lights.  But, I thought I'd experiment a bit and it did help a lot in pulling together the darks behind the blooms.
Clouds and rain moved in so I brought it inside to finish it up.  You might notice that I did end up changing the original design.  I altered the right side quite a bit.  Downsizing the blooms, fading them out as I really wanted the focus to be the blooms to the left where the sunlight was hitting strongest.