Monday, January 31, 2011

Purple Flower Stage Four

Continuing to paint the background with acrylic.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Purple Flower Stage Three

Words of advice to experiment & explore play through my mind like a broken record. I decided to paint the “background” soft-focus areas with acrylic treated like watercolor. I have incorporated acrylic into several of my recent watercolors. But mainly to get flat even skies. I am not concerned about following the strict rules of transparent watercolor that have guided me in the past. But this painting is a departure. I wanted to paint the background wet-into-wet, something that I don’t do a lot with watercolor. I am more of a layer upon layer painter. But I really wanted this to be freer but with the colors very bright. I also want to paint faster!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Purple Flower Stage Two

The flower is from the garden at the Getty Museum. It is a small but lovely garden. It always inspires me. That was last summer. This summer the flowers were all over the place. It seemed to be a particularly abundant year. The jacaranda trees seemed to be in bloom longer this summer too. All the purple reminded me daily of my desire to paint this painting. But I was painting for another show… Finally got to it.