Petal Light IV (Finished!)

Petal Light IV, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 14"h x 10"w, 2013 #34

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Finished this one just in time for the submission to Illinois Watercolor Society's National Juried Exhibition this year -- we will see how that turns out! Compared to the 10" x 8" version, this one has more sober and muted colors which are closer to nature. I also experimented with painting larger area wet in wet in one go, and combining several leaf shapes as a group to be painted together. I'm happy with the result, now it's time to put it aside for a little bit and see in a couple of days whether any final adjustment is needed...  

Fire Bird, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, WIP 2

This one is coming very close to its finish. I will need to put some darker blues on the stamen to make it really pop, and maybe add another pass on the background to make it darker -- I am not sure at the point yet, but I don't want to go all the way to black to lose the color interaction between the yellow orange flower and the blue of the background -- this set of complementary works well, but I do feel the value of the background is a bit too light and therefore distract the viewer's eye from the center flower. What do you think? Please let me know -- I think I do need a pair of more objective eyes than mine at this point...

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More Birds on Fire...

Jungle Fire, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 8"h x 10"w, WIP 6

I can't believe I have put this one off for so long! Sometimes you know a painting is just lacking that final touch but you like what has been put down on paper so far and worry you will screw it up, so you just keep on putting off those final strokes indefinitely... No more! I am resuming this one and laying down the juicy saturated reds and oranges on this bird. Hopefully it will be completed within the week... 

Fire Bird, Watercolor on Arches #140 Cold Press Paper, 5"h x 7"w, WIP 1

I've also started this little one in the hopes that it will be completed with a day or two's work so that I can post it for auction on Daily Paintworks. I have realized that I like to have several paintings utilizing the same color palette going on in the same time -- hence all the greens in my last blog post and all the firey reds and oranges in this one! Yes, I've started both of these birds when I was painting the center flower of "Petal Light #4"... By doing this I can switch back and forth while waiting for the paintings to dry, and do not have to clean my palette too often and lose some lovely mixtures that has formed on it! ;-) See, I'm a conservationist at heart... lol...

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