A Small Orchid
After much anticipation on my part, I finally got to paint in oils today. Painting is like riding a bike or getting back on a horse after not having ridden for awhile. I don’t know if this describes it correctly. Painting is such a familiar feeling and feels so good and comforting and empowering to do. It feels like freedom.
You get the point, I was psyched to get back to painting in oils today.
Now that my paint had arrived in the mail, what was I going to paint? The quest for a subject ensued.
I walked the block, hunted through the cupborads for “good” still life objects, walked through the woods squinting to see where the light was just right.
All of these were good potential subjects, but none made that light bulb go off.
Then I walked out the front door and found this orchid tucked into my mother’s many pots of flowers and knew instantly that it would be today’s subject
The Small Orchid
Oil on Panel
8 x 6″
$200 | Available
Purchase
The real background for this was a jungle of green woods since I took it outdoors to paint in the sunlight. Then while walking around the plant and moving it here and there, just for a moment it had a light sunlit tree behind it and I decided run with that and to try an almost white for the background.
In still lives I sometimes think that the background can make or break a painting. The color combinations or even the shade and tone of the color can change everything. The right background can harmonize with the objects and make them sing or even glow (if you’re really good…).
Maybe a hair darker background would have been more soothing, or even set the flowers off more. But really I liked the idea of this light white background, the painting then becomes more about the pot and the leaves and the color and tonal contrast there more than about the flowers.
I feel lucky that today’s painting flowed, I am keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow.