Painting is like making a movie. First there is the idea, the inspiration, then the script and the actors and finally with any luck at all you have a hit.
The inspiring idea is the base of the creation without this there is nothing. You may have many ideas but only one can fill your heart enough to work on for six months or more without tiring. All my paintings have given me many hours of pleasure and just plain hard work with every layer of pastel chalk challenging me to the fullest. Miscalculations have to be worked out in the sketch to scale before a painting is started and even then there are many little surprises in the best laid plans.
I just finished an incredible pastel painting of a beautiful Catalaya Orchid. When I saw this flower it was so bright that from 25 feet away you could still see its brightness. Once I approached this yellow glow I found this one Orchid bloom under an extended roof in a garden. I ran to my car for my pad and camera. Every time the light changed the bloom would react so I just kept drawing and taking pictures. Finally the moment was there and the bloom just radiated perfectly from the stream of sunlight and there it was my idea. I entitled this pastel painting “Bellissima” Most Beautiful.
William Cattley was an English horticulturist who potted the cattleya’s in 1824. Up until then he worked mosses and lichens that were shipped to him from South America. The shipments used the cattleya plant’s leaves and pseudobulbs to reinforce the shipments. William potted these pseudobulbs and the Cattleya was born. It was a very important discovery in Orchid history and today the Cattleya reigns as the “Queen of the Orchids” named after William Cattley.
Now I had to create a sketch. I had to take this incredible piece from Mother Nature center and stabilize the image for a painting. The two large side petals that are reminiscent of a bow tie center the bloom and stabilizes the bloom. The other surrounding petals and the cascading petals with white trim have their own twists and turns. It almost looks as if the flower is floating except for the light areas that give impressions of the leaves, stork and garden flower holder placed in the ground. This garden holder starts at the right corner and leans left and that line follows to the top folded petal leaning to the left. Now if you look at the bottom left petal on the left side of the cascading bottom petal trimmed in white, that lower section of the flower is leaning to the right. These artfully placed angels only add to the beauty “Bellissima”.
The combination of green and yellow as base colors are very unusual for a painting. Green is not often seen as a solid background. The green pastels were carefully layered to create a color that would in contrast to the bright Yellows, pink and white edges of the flowering petals ultimately becoming a striking combination.
This painting is 15”x21” and took me about six months to sketch and layer each color of pastel to create the finished painting. I work on the painting in the morning light, then the afternoon and evening light. I also work in a low light in the evening. Working in all these lights allows the painting have its own light and slightly change with the varying lights of the day. No direct artificial light is needed with any of my paintings. It is exciting to look at each one of my works in all the days light to see the colors slightly change as they would naturally.
Check out the “Bellissima” painting on my website www.LACfineart.com You can also purchase NEW Fine Art Note Cards and Miniature Framed Giclee’s of this image!