If you ever come for a visit, this will be the first painting you see as you come in the front door. If you have ever been for a visit, there was another triptych there. It showed a little boy fishing in a pond with some ducks. When that one sold, I wanted to replace it with something more bold and in colors I loved. (Half of that worked out.)
The process was not typical for me because I've never been one of those artists who sees something in her mind and puts it on canvas. I usually just paint the colors and shapes that I see, but this time was different... Instead of a reference photo, I had an idea... (Scary!)
For the background, I decided to use only my two favorite colors, green and purple, with white. I thought I would mottle those three together and come out with something unique. But... it turned out to be this blue... What? so weird! Not the plan, but good.
I wanted a big flower that would go onto two of the canvases, but I wanted that to balance out with a bud on the other side... It didn't. So, another bud showed up. And, I wanted them to look like they were dancing. (Yeah, I know... that sounds pretty artsy...) I think it worked though.
I wanted the flower to pop, so I picked the complementary orange. For the shadowing I used that same green and purple mixture to limit the palette and keep some harmony. It had a yellow center at for a long time, but it kept demanding all the attention. (Yeah... artsy again. What's happening to me!) That brown center... It's not brown... it's that same green-purple mixture with some of the orange... again... kind of weird surprise, but good.
In the end I did something brave. (Brave means it worked. Stupid would have meant it ruined it.) The background was lovely, and the flowers were lovely. But, the painting wasn't lovely. I put some of the orange paint on a big fluffy dry brush and touched it onto the background. And just like that... it was lovely.
It occurred to me that my 10-year birthday as a painter is coming up in a few weeks. Wow... 10 years and 338 paintings... How should I celebrate or honor that? Ideas???
Original Oil Painting on 6x12, 9x16, 6x12
[SOLD]
Well you are out there stretching and look what you got, brave girl. It did turn out lovely. Aren't poppies great? I am going to have to try out that background cause I sure don't know how it got to be blue. Guess the orange worked as you already had some yellow and reds in there from the original three colors. Like this lot and you won't have it long.
ReplyDeleteHope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Thanks, Nelvia. I've been thinking about how that blue showed up. I used Diozazine Purple (which is cool - leans toward blue) and Thalo Green (which is cool - leans toward blue). So I guess when the bluish purple and the bluish green got together, the blue from both overpowered and took over. That wasn't the intent, but I like it... might have saved some trouble and just painted it blue to start with! ha ha ha.
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I love this painting!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I kind of like it too. :)
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