Easter Lilies in Excess

Note: After posting regarding the wildfires in our area, we did get rain yesterday, and today. Hudson's Hope residents have been allowed to return to their homes, but there are still many fires burning, and some areas are still evacuated. Lots of smoke in the air today - the sky is yellow! Just when I think I'm a courageous painter, I get even braver! It takes a confident hand to throw down colour and let it happen, and as I was filming videos for my new floral online course, I had a lot of fun painting Easter lilies.

The lesson was demonstrating how to use cling wrap and salt to create texture in watercolour. Most painters know about these techniques but don't always understand how to use them so that they don't overpower a painting, so this was my goal in demonstrating these effects.

Painting while taping and teaching is a lot like most multi-tasking - you can do one thing well, or several things poorly - so the painting in progress shown above didn't really turn out. I did however use it as a jumping-off point for another attempt, and pulled out a full sheet of watercolour paper (22" x 30" or 56x76 cm) to try again.

There are a lot of dynamics in this painting that make me very happy, and I'm using a combination of colours that is fresh to me, since I ordinarily don't use a lot of yellow in painting. Lots of beautiful washes, brushstrokes and fluid colour that is so irresistible to me as a painter.

Easter Lilies is available for purchase. Email me to inquire.