Friday, August 20, 2021

Petunias!

 11x14 Acrylic on Canvas Panel

I planted a riot of petunias in my front window flower box this year and they eventually worked their magic to make me do my first flower painting.  I find flowers intimidating what with all that petal action, but this was fun!

I also learned a lesson in paint colors for this one.  I couldn't get the pink I was after and looked at the pigment content of my Liquitex Alizarin Crimson. It's 2 pigments, one of which is a brownish red which turns the pink muddy when mixed with blue or another purple. I have an older tube with a different formulation, but the newer Alizarins have 2 colors so a cool bright pink is virtually impossible. I ended up buying a tube of Quin Magenta so I can have a cool bright pink.  I'm used to Alizarin in oils which makes an exquisite cool light pink.  I've come around to believing a limited palette is the best way to learn color mixing, and learned to check each color is a single pigment before I buy.



 

5 comments:

  1. Nicely done! You're so talented I find it surprising flowers intimidate you.

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  2. I find many subjects intimidating Jean, but I think we learn the most from tackling the hard stuff. Not interested enough in portraiture to frustrate myself there however.

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  3. Thank you so much for your comment on my blog about my kitchen! It is a bit funky I think, but I love it! Speaking of love-wow-I love your artwork. I hope you will post a lot so I can learn from you...

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  4. A lovely and evocative painting. The lighter blooms seem to glow with translucent light!

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  5. It's interesting what we find most intimidating. I agree with Jean, I think you do Fine Flowers and I'd never know you had felt intimidated about painting them.

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