Paint or plant?

     Three White Roses- 13x22 watercolor on Arches paper, $575.00

   I am a frustrated gardener.  My yard is in a woodland setting and much too shady to grow these beauties.  Not to mention my assistant gardener- our dog Mocha.  If she becomes too suspicious about something newly planted in the backyard, she rips it right out of the ground with her teeth.  Since my camellia suffered this fate recently, I have been reluctant to plant anything as regal as a white rose.  Painting them my be the first stop in my gardening therapy.

   I knew I would be painting roses for the floral show May 6, at the Inn at the 5th.  You can't have a floral show without the queen!  Even though these are white, there are still colors on their petals that depict light and shadows.  Warm light trapped in the folds intensifies and glows a peachy gold.  I chose purple and blue shadows as a good compliment color.  The dark background is saved for last and has to be thickly applied- usually in several steps.  It's a secret sauce, created by my watercolor teacher, and it can be mixed using Pereleen Maroon, Ultra Marine Blue and a little Mineral Violet.  And poof! Instant roses!  

   These roses and more can be seen May 6 at the Inn at the 5th.

Painting to Bloom!

Hydrangea- 22x30 watercolor on Arches 140lb Paper.  $2,500

 

   Im having a lot of fun painting florals for this upcoming show at the Inn at the 5th.  They have a celebration called Bloom every year and this year, my art will be featured at the First Friday Art Walk, 

May 6, 5:30-8:00.

   I have been fiddling with photo shoots of flowers for this series because I wanted a floral noir kind of look- mysterious dark background with deep shadows to play off the creamy whites of the flowers.  This hydrangea was so much fun because it captured some of the light inside the blossom, giving that warm glow.  In an attempt to capture that look with colors , I kept all the petals on the outside of the flower in cool blues and lavenders while every thing inside the petals is warm oranges and greens and greys.  I added colors to my palette for this project,  cobalt blue and mineral violet are the old standbys, but I added Verditer blue from Daniel Smith.  For the warm tones I used Gamboge Yellow and Azo yellow but added a yummy orange called Scarlet Pyrrol, and Cad Red Scarlett along with some Rose Madder Genuine.  

   Your colors become your friends.  You become familiar with the way they perform together.  Adding new ones can be risky.  How do you know they will "play nice" with your old friends and give you the effects you want?  I kept a strip of paper next to me and mixed the new colors with the old before I used them on my painting.  The test strip is a bit like training wheels- feels annoying and slows you down.  But disciplining yourself to throttle down and use it gives you your predictability back.  That way you dont have any ugly surprises on your painting.  I have a lot of bad color mixing stories that you dont have time for!  After having to literally scrub color off your painting in the sink, you become more careful the next time.  Lesson learned!