Watercolor Demonstration

This 40" x 26" watercolor is a life size painting of a basket full of Cattleya orchids. Mabel Parrish Hicks grows orchids and creates arrangements combining both potted plants and cut blossoms surrounded by ferns. I love to paint, particularly cut flowers. One of the reasons is that I can paint them fresh, here in my studio, where I can study them intently with no interruptions.

What appeals to me is their fragility and very short life. I like capturing their transitory beauty on paper so it becomes permanent. The process of living with a chronic illness (Wegener's Granulomatosis) has given me an awareness of how fleeting life can be. I find painting flowers an affirmation of the value of the fleeting - my self included.

I've completed 10 paintings based on Mabel's orchids. They range from color sketches in watercolor to 11 x 15 paintings of individual blooms up through 30x22 sheets of the whole basket. for this painting, I wanted to set off the intense blooms with the simple basket and white table reflecting their shape and color.

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• Show me all 10 images on one page.
• Show me the detailed demonstration one step at a time.