From the Artist: I wanted in this work to capture the delicacy and grace of this deceptive beauty, with it's huge, fragile, and highly toxic salmon pink blooms that drip from the branches of the Datura tree like something out of a fairy tale. The background provides an essence of movement, the actual painting leaves one with the sensation that the flower is bobbing up and down in an unseen breeze.
I think I fluked the accuracy of colour initially with vermilion and white and a touch of something else. I have not worked much at all in oils and am really pleased with the result.
I had no cloth to put behind and form the studio set up but have since brought an old sheet and it makes more sense as there is less 'visual cluttter' then when one blocks it out. Thanks for that tip and sorry I could not do it for this work. You can see it the one with the easel what the set up was like. The photo has been cropped a little on the sides as could not get it square.
From the Painting Guide: Not only does a cloth block the visual clutter, but depending on its color and whether it's glossy or matte will have some impact on the colors of shadows and even reflect color back onto the flower. Tiny detail such as this is hard to get accurately from your imagination; far easier to observe it from life.
Whether you call it a fluke or happy accident, it's the result that counts. And having done it once, you can do it again -- the evidence is right there that it's possible. I think you should be very pleased overall with this flower portrait.
I think I fluked the accuracy of colour initially with vermilion and white and a touch of something else. I have not worked much at all in oils and am really pleased with the result.
I had no cloth to put behind and form the studio set up but have since brought an old sheet and it makes more sense as there is less 'visual cluttter' then when one blocks it out. Thanks for that tip and sorry I could not do it for this work. You can see it the one with the easel what the set up was like. The photo has been cropped a little on the sides as could not get it square.
From the Painting Guide: Not only does a cloth block the visual clutter, but depending on its color and whether it's glossy or matte will have some impact on the colors of shadows and even reflect color back onto the flower. Tiny detail such as this is hard to get accurately from your imagination; far easier to observe it from life.
Whether you call it a fluke or happy accident, it's the result that counts. And having done it once, you can do it again -- the evidence is right there that it's possible. I think you should be very pleased overall with this flower portrait.