Oil Painting: Botanical Theme
This is an oil painting series that took shape as a result of my love affair with the Agapanthus plant. It's long, ropey leaves and firework flowers are things of beauty. This body of work also took me from realism to abstraction... and I discovered that abstraction can be rich! Color-wise, this is an experiment with green... how many ways can I create green. Each 'swatch' or painting makes use of a different palette of exquisite green.
The perfect choice for a serene living space.
I make a point of finding alternatives to the use of black paint. I reach for French Ultramarine Blue, Indigo, Viridian, Umbers and Ochres before contemplating black. In this case (above) I mixed black with green to dull the green and, to my surprise, I found a luminous result.
I enjoyed moving towards abstraction on this image. How far could I push the leaf imagery before it would become unrecognisable and break apart?
With so much leaf detail I needed to create a harmony with color. Offsetting the detail with a balanced palette was my challenge.
French Ultramarine blue was pushed into nearly all of the shadow surfaces here. The effect somewhat flattens the form but gives a shocking visual interest. The pink details seemed equally unexpected.
Exploring the depth of color in the shadows, I was intrigued by the details under and through the leaft structures.
