Water Lilies 1

This is an image of an original watercolour and pastel painting from my 'Water Lilies' series. It is painted on 300lb Arches watercolour... more

by Fiona Craig

Buy the Original Painting

Price

Not Specified

Dimensions

14.500 x 11.000 inches

Title

Water Lilies 1

Artist

Fiona Craig

Medium

Painting - Watercolour And Pastel On Arches Paper

Description

This is an image of an original watercolour and pastel painting from my 'Water Lilies' series. It is painted on 300lb Arches watercolour paper.

Please note: the FAA watermark does not appear on the purchased print.

'Watelilies 1' depicts three lovely yellow-centered pink waterlilies that I saw at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Illinois, in spring or summer. The soft, hazy sunlight brings out the glow in the petals of the flowers, and highlights the lily pads and the water of the pond just enough to compliment the blooms without competing with them for attention.

Waterlilies (from the nymphaeaceae family - a tropical herbal plant whose hybrids can now grow in temperate climates) seem to suit all kinds of artistic media, including my favorites: watercolor, oil, and pastel. My first instinct was to render them in watercolor studies. These watercolors provide a process in my art making that enables me to 'get to know' a subject in more depth than mere observation can do. I usually work these watercolors up to a stage where they stand as artworks in their own right, rather than leave them at a sketchy stage as just artistic journal jottings. This tends to happen naturally as I become engrossed in my subject. I often finish off my watercolor paintings with pastels for softening effects. In this painting, I have kept the pastel touches to a minimum in order to highlight and soften while maintaining the work of the main medium of the paint.

My floral subjects are not exactly botanica (botanical studies), but I do try to stay with botanical correctness whilst playing with composition and rendering my subject with painterly techniques that allow more freedom of expression. Somewhat influenced by the waterlily paintings of Monet, I like to incorporate a little Impressionism in my technique, but try to give them a contemporary look by aiming at a more realistic rendering.

Uploaded

July 4th, 2014