Past Their Prime

[ Past Prime, Sacred Lotus in Autumn, 10×14″, Watercolor – SOLD! ]

These are Indian or Sacred Lotus plants, seen in October last year, with the flowers long gone and the giant leaves turning into curled brown rags.

Even without the iconic pink blooms we usually see, they’re beautiful in the right light.

I’m a huge fan of green on green paintings. I had read that the human eye sees more shades of green than any other color. I don’t know if that’s just the physics of light, or because our eyes evolved in a plant-filled natural environment? Either way, I love a warm green-gold color palette.

Like the sketch of Thomas Hardy’s cottage from a few days back, this was an exercise in carefully tinting my favorite Daniel Smith Green Gold in various different directions.

I pushed a puddle of Green Gold into the sunlight with Nickel Titanate Yellow, or the shadow with M.Graham’s Turquoise, and aged the leaves with sedimentary DS Olive Green, and my off-whites (Buff Titanium and/or Holbein Grey of Grey), and in the brown areas, DS Goethite (Brown Madder), DS Quinacridone Gold Deep, and M. Graham Transparent Red Iron Oxide.

People say – always mix your greens – meaning making greens from yellow and blue.

But I disagree. I just start with green! and only nudge it a little.

And I try to mix as little as possible – that leads to watery paint. I place rich pigments side by side – so the colors mix on the paper.

I’ve arrived by experiment at the colors that look good to my eye – and I pretty much stick with them. Everyone needs to tinker with their palette and come to their own conclusions. But I prefer staying away from the more chromatic mixing primaries – often you see recommendations for Cadmium Yellow and Phtalo Blue – and instead staying in a warm, neutralized color-space. I find it makes the paintings much more restful.

Ok, take care, stay home and paint, and talk to you soon!

~marc