Ghost Plant #1

Succulents are a gold mine of interesting and unexpected color combinations. On a neighborhood walk, as I passed along the back side of Lafayette Cemetery No.1 on Coliseum St, I spotted a flower pot with these beautiful Echeveria peering out from someone’s porch. This is a cool, semi-hidden block that tends to be quieter and darker than much of the Garden District, with oak trees from the cemetery providing dense shade. The street and sidewalks are uneven, and it feels small and close, like a secret. Though I’ve always favored more leafy-green tropical plants, I’ve been getting into succulents in my own small garden lately. The blues, reds and purples mix with greens and browns to create these truly other-worldly shapes that transition between colors in ways that are hard to capture. Especially in my hard-edge illustrative style. But I really wanted to accentuate the relationship between these two prominent, secondary colors in the greens and purples of the leaves. I love the effect of the sunlight falling across the flower and flower pot in Succulents #1. But I also really liked how all of the greens and purples came together closely in the smaller flower in the top right of #1. I chose to isolate that flower in its own composition in Succulents #3 so it could show off. Succulents #2 has its own character, as the brightest in the series, keying off of the sunny background and brilliance of the flower facing skyward.