Murasaki #5

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 #5 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 one is the most sparse of the group, appearing to be pulled and stretched from the center. The central bud shape is the definition of minimalism, depicting the flower shape of the succulent with just three colors and a few incomplete shapes. The shapes of the bottom left mirror each other, creating an interesting relationship between the turquoise and the purple.