Murasaki #2

These succulents are one of my favorite plants from my expanding garden. They have a special place on a table just outside of my back door. I pass them in the mornings going out to my studio to work, or anytime I’m going out to paint. I captured a few pictures of them one afternoon in the bright sun, then soon after again following a rain. I considered doing two large paintings of the same size, one in each state. But while doing the first drawing I fell in love with some of the details of the plants (they’re not flowers), and decided I wanted to do smaller detail pieces as well. Given the complexity of the first painting, I thought doing one of equal size with rain drops would be too much to take on… and if I pulled it off, it might outshine its sibling. So I decided to make the last piece, with rain drops, the same height but in a narrower, vertical format. I’m glad that I did — they all go together so well! Murasaki #2 is a detail from its larger sibling piece, focusing on the rosette of one of the plants. The purpose of the detail pieces is to further abstract the subject so that you’re focusing less on the “picture,” perhaps even questioning what you’re seeing. Instead the intention lies in the combination of shapes and colors. This piece in particular has a wide range of colors for such a confined space, with a strong diagonal flow tracking the darker colors from the top left down to the bottom right. A small burst of new growth at the center give this composition a clear point of focus.