Nasturtiums

Day 6 of #30x30DirectWatercolor2019. These came up volunteer in the corner of my herb garden from underneath a mass of mint, somewhere I had never planted nasturtiums. The wind, or a bird, someone transported a seed there, and all the lovely rain we had brought out the "nasties" in their spectacular yellowness.

There are always so many decisions to consider when you make art, most of which are irrevocable in watercolor. Whereas in another medium you could just paint over anything you didn't like and keep going, in watercolor it's a keeper or a do-over, there's little room for compromise.

 For me, with this one, it was the shadows: I looked at the painting without them and thought, "It needs something to anchor it." It wasn't that I didn't like what I had done, in fact quite the contrary: I felt I had captured the segmented delicacy of the leaves and flowers. But it looked like a flower pattern on a white background, not like a plant that was lying on a surface in front of me, so I opted for shadows.

I don't precisely regret them, but I DO wish I had stopped long enough before putting them in to make a scan of the painting without them, just to see the contrast. Also, it was hard to see where to put them and where not to, because some of the foliage and flowers were lying right on the surface, casting solid shadows, while other parts were suspended above, not casting any (or none discernible to me). Anyway, here is the final, for better or worse!

I am enjoying the focus on painting daily. Last year, it was a rushed moment when I got home from work, either on the patio trying to beat the dying of daylight, or in my office, staring at a reference photo on the computer. What luxury to get up from a late breakfast and think, Oh, now I will paint! and then assemble my materials out on my patio, take my time, and appreciate the location, the weather, and whatever object or scene I'm attempting to capture.

My bank balance may no longer be healthy enough to support an impulsive trip to Dick Blick (Art Supplies), but at least I now have the time to USE all those materials!

ADDENDUM to this post: I even have time to take another look and make another painting of the same subject in the same day! After I finished painting this first one, I picked up the spray of slightly wilted flowers and stuck them into my water "jar" (it's one of those collapsible plastic accordion containers), and went into the kitchen to make a late lunch. After eating, I sat and gazed for a while at the nasturtiums, now at a different angle, with a different slant of late afternoon sun, and decided to do a quick and messy second painting. Which, because of the sun's angle, turned into a sort of negative painting, where the shadow fell. I haven't done much negative painting, and wasn't particularly careful about this one, so some of it runs together, but I like how the colors turned out.

Nasturtiums #2, #30x30DirectWatercolor2019.

DAY 6: NASTURTIUMS 1 & 2

#30x30DirectWatercolor2019