For the flowers I used gouache. I haven’t worked with gouache much. I need to play with it more. Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint. Transparent watercolor allows you to see the “white” of the paper through the paint. Gouache paint can be applied in solid colors. This allows artists to paint in layers from dark to light.
The flowers of the Prickly Pear look waxy and are translucent. So gouache was not the right medium for them. Lesson learned. I was hoping to capture the vivid colors. I will try again. Won’t that be fun! Here is a terrific video showing different cacti flowers. If you watch to the end, it gives the names of each.
Ta-da. Ta-done. The two paintings above started as playful florals for two toddlers. Then Nana Noni requested having their birth stats added. There are layers of paper and paint, leaf skeletons. Unfortunately, most of that texture is not showing well.
This next one is for the newest addition, Abigail. It’s tiny, ‘cuz she’s teeny. I will do her birth stats soon. She was given her great-grandmother’s name, Viola. So I used violet hues.
I thought I missed it. The best shot. Turns out I didn’t. That is why the photos above are in reverse order. I pulled out the pink in Photoshop. On my phone, the sky almost looked white. I didn’t have to adjust it much, to see the pink as it was. Sort of eerie, like being on Mars. A pretty, human-friendly, oxygen-filled Mars.
I made the 30-Day Creative Gathering board on Pinterest public. My idea worked. Whew! I added the photos (sent to me by participants) to a page on my site. The page will not be published, but I can pin from there to the board. Take a look, September was a great month for art!
Only thing is, if you click those images on the board, they link to the page on my site. I didn’t think anyone would see it. Now I need to dress it up and credit each of you. On my list for tomorrow. I’d still like to include everyone who created during the challenge. I added the FB post about it to the announcements section if you are interested. If you would like to be represented on the board, you can message me your collage, and/or 1 to 2 works created during the challenge.
Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures. Lovelle Drachman
I have been playing with scraps and paint the last week or so. Usually right before bed. I’m painting lots of blah and yuck. But the process is… restorative. Today the weather was feeling sort of grey and sad. So of course, I felt like painting bright flowers.
Many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the boundsof their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. J.K. Rowling
