Orchid Watercolor Painting
Inspiration began with a wonderful handmade watercolor paper with four deckle edges. The paper so thick and textured, I wanted to caress it.
handmade watercolor paper with 4 deckle edges ~ so Where Does Inspiration Come From?’
I couldn’t wait to see how paint would look on this fabulous watercolor paper. After all, it IS the paper that makes it all work right?
A day at the botanic garden did the trick.
I took my stack of papers, a small watercolor palette, a bottle of water and a brush and headed for the orchid house.
Orchid Muse, watercolor, 9″ x 12″
I came home with six studies. You know, those incomplete paintings you’re not sure if you like or hate.
I liked most of them, sort of.
But there was something missing.
Golden Orchid, watercolor, 9″ x 12″
I threw them on the table in the studio. A week or so later, I still felt something missing.
And I still felt CURIOUS . . .
I picked up the paint brush to explore options.
Lily’s Wish, watercolor, 12″ xz9″
The paint got heavy, you know too much paint, not enough white left showing through.
I walked away and let it dry.
The next day I loaded a 2″ wide flat wash brush with gesso, first dipped in water so the gesso wouldn’t be too overwhelming.
Gesturing the white, I blocked in where I wanted to see Light.
I let it dry completely.
Wow! Space for more watercolor!
I painted til my heart’s content and let it dry again.
Orchid House, watercolor, 12″ x 9″
Then I did it all again!
Sometimes I added water soluble pastels to the mix. Sometimes pencil.
With each layer I wondered if I’d blown the whole thing.
But I didn’t care! I didn’t listen to her nagging about getting it right!
I just kept on playing my game of colors.
And then I discovered what was missing in the sketches I brought home from the gardens.
Orchid Goddess, Original Watercolor Painting
Orchids are one of my favorite flowers /plants. This is a abstraction of a Lady Slipper Orchid. Orchid have an lure of mystery, wildness, extreme beauty and rarity. Most types of Orchids live in trees and like having their roots dangling down and be watered everyday with rain showers.
I use Spirals in a lot of my art work. For me Spirals show the dance of life. I also use Goddess and Women in dream-like settings in which they flow with Mother Earth, Space, Thoughts and Dreams. I create powerful women and Goddesses to help people find beauty and joy in life.
This painting is hand painted watercolor, metallic and iridescent paint on 140 lbs watercolor paper.
Measurement: Measurement: Image: 11.5 x 15.5 inch
With black mat:16 x 20
This was tricky to photograph because of the metallic paints. Depending on the light and the angle, different parts of the painting will shimmer.
Color May Slightly Vary due to Photographic Lighting Sources or Your Monitor Settings.
The painting is not framed but does come with a black mat.
This artwork comes beautifully wrapped so it will be perfect to save you time if it is a gift or will give you something beautiful to unwrap for yourself.
Please send me a message with any questions.
For more information on my artwork please visit:
Www.PurpleFullMoonStudio.com
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Thank you for visiting Purple Full Moon Studios!
May your head be full of ideas, your hands be full of clay, and your heart full of the Goddess.
Copyright Anne Jewett 2022
Orchid Painting in Watercolor for the book but….
So here’s the frustrating thing: I learned that the publisher wants me to write the text accompanying the step by step photos as instructions (first do this, now do that) rather than a description of what I’ve done. Sometimes watercolors go as planned and that would be simple to do, because what I did is how I would tell someone else to do it. But with this painting there was just as much taking off of paint as there was putting it on. Some of that was about softening edges with a damp brush and then blotting, but some of it was just removing paint that wasn’t working. I’ve never seen a “how to” book that says paint on a nice wash. Now wipe it off.
My biggest problem with this painting was the photo I had to work from. Like many artistic photos of flowers, it was shot without shadows or directional light and therefore everything was very flat with little dimensionality. Even more difficult, everything except the front center flower was intentionally out of focus. That makes for a lovely photo but not an easy watercolor painting project. And there is no variation in color: they’re all just cotton candy pink with dark magenta veins. And I picked the stupid photo and thought it would be easy. But for me, what is easy is lots of detail and variations in color, shape and value.
I started over four times, each time getting a little further and then abandoning ship. If I was just painting for myself any of those starts would have been fine and enjoyable to paint but I was finding myself exaggerating shapes and colors and losing fidelity with the photo.
Now I’m not sure what to do: Paint this again in order to be able to do write a logical “how to” that doesn’t include undoing previous steps? Write a “how to” and leave out the do-overs? Enjoy my vacation this week and forget about the whole project? (the latter sounds most appealing)
I think I’ll send a photo of the painting to my editor and see if she even likes the painting. My persistent (compulsive?) side really wants to paint the painting again, trying to do it more simply and cleanly. But my (sane?) side says “Go have a bowl of ice cream and watch a movie.” I wonder which side will win and how late the ice cream shop is open?
