Murasaki #6 With Rain

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 #6 With Rain was a challenging painting inspired by photographs of the same plant, taken a few days later following a rain storm. But great challenges yield great rewards, and I’m very happy with the way this piece turned out. I took the same approach to painting this piece as the others, with my original palette, and completed the piece as if it were “dry,” similar to Murasaki #1. I then drew the rain drops all over the leaves to paint on top, choosing not to do a white wash… because that’s just not how I paint. The lighter version of each color was mixed as a distinct hue. Each individual, partial shape was painted one at a time, creating hundreds of tiny, sharp points where shapes and colors met. In the end I achieved the effect I was hoping for, resulting in a very engaging work of art.