Date: 8/02/2012
Location: Captain Cook
Size: 4 panels, 24" x 48" each
Medium: Oil on stretched canvas
Artist's Comments: I worked with interior designer, Eric Henderson, to create a painting that would compliment a very colorful property whose primary colors were fuchsia, tangerine and lime green. The space was a very large wall and needed a substantial piece to complete the space. We selected 4 panels and Eric asked me to create a flower portrait. At first I was stumped on what fuchsia flower I would paint then, on a trip to my brother's house in Captain Cook, I found the perfect subject. In the jungle behind his home was a small grouping of wild heliconia. They were primarily a reddish tone but as I got closer hints of pink emerged. I immediately knew I found the subject for this piece and took some reference photos with the help of my niece and nephew. When I started to paint the blooms, I enjoyed mixing the perfect reddish/fuchsia tones for the flowers and purposefully didn't want all the flowers to be he exact same shade. Heliconia have a waxy finish to them and I knew I needed to render this effect correctly. I tried a glaze of white but that made the flowers appear too bland. Then I had an idea and decided to create the wax finish with a wash of fuchsia and that did the trick! When finished, I admired how the bright fuchsia flowers resembled bright pink rubies glowing brightly in the Hawaiian jungle.
To view other paintings in my collection, click on the section labeled "View all SitaScapes" located at the top right of my blog. I have categorized my paintings by the month as I complete them.
