Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A LITTLE PUSH

Sometimes just writing in the blog that I am not painting makes me pick up my brushes again and paint something.  I think it's the over-achiever in me that says, get busy, do it!  So I did.

Having enjoyed the recent magnolia paintings of Carol Carter, I was thinking of them when I looked through some photos for inspiration and found this photo taken by my Sweetie on a trip down to Paducah, KY.  At least, I think that's where it was taken.  He takes so many photos, I often am not sure where the photo was taken.


Anyway, I don't want my magnolia to look like Carol's magnolia but I do want to try that lovely lavender color she used (Holbein Lavender) - which, it turns out, was pretty darned close to Cheap Joe's Periwinkle that I already had - who knew?

What struck me about the colors in the photo is that beautiful rich caramel/burnt orange color and I'll try to play that up before I even touch the closed blossom and then will use that Lavender and Quin Burnt Orange on it. 

This is on 1/2 sheet Arches cold press and I'm working very wet-in-wet, letting the colors move and flow and do what watercolor does best.  I hope to get some good blossoms, too :) 

And I have my homework done for Suzanne's online course!

8 comments:

Christiane Kingsley said...

Rhonda,
I love magnolias and Carol's are stunning; I will be following your progress on this one with great interest. You are off to a fabulous start - I love the wet and wet on the petal!

Carol Blackburn said...

Looking good, Rhonda. Can't wait to see the finished piece. Wonderful choice to paint.

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Gorgeous colours Rhonda and when the lavender is added WOW!! Loved your little froggies too - went over to disentangle the 10 ft hollyhock from the climbing rose, stepped into the flower bed and found a little line of tiny frogs running (oops! sorry hopping) away from my big feet!! Love your varied blog posts.

RH Carpenter said...

Thanks, Christiane. I hope I can do a good job without too much working the paint and paper!

Carol, thanks!

Joan, thanks so much - I hope the petal will be great when I do it (last - like dessert, waiting for the final bit). Oh, good for you, you have froggies in your yard!!

hw (hallie) farber said...

I checked out the blogs you mentioned yesterday; I can understand why you're back to the brushes. It looks great.

Sadami said...

Dear Rhonda,
Your ongoing work impresses me so much. It's interesting to know how you handle a background. Very good. BTW, your new avatar looks so charmingʚ(ˆ◡ˆ)ɞ!!!
Cheers,Sadami

Autumn Leaves said...

Yay for getting homework done!! This is looking oh so gorgeous! Can't wait to see more...

RH Carpenter said...

Hallie, I hope you enjoyed the blog links :) So many wonderful artists on my sidebar, I can't visit as often as I want!

Sadami, you are too kind. That avatar is my Mii from our Wii game! ha ha

Autumn, I always get it done - sometimes too early as I'm raring to go after our online "meeting" and critique! ha ha I'll have more to share on this painting soon.