New Painting Suzy at the Botanical Gardens

When we visited Hilo on Halloween this year, Sue, my wife and I took the ship excursion to the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens. You may be able to get a little more on this trip by backing this blog up to the Hilo day on the Hawaiian trip.

We took a group of photos that show a nice representation of the gardens.

My sister thought that photo that I took would make an interesting watercolor. The photo has Suzy lifting her arm above her head to get a photo. This is a common move with the small digital cameras that many people take on vacation. Suzy is wearing a big brown sun hat and is shooting from her wheelchair.
I started this painting in earnest about a week ago. Its a vertical which in many landscape circles is less preferred. I am doing it on a watercolor canvas instead of a piece of paper which is also less standard.

This subject is a good solid member of a series that I am making in watercolor canvases of people using their digital cameras to capture the photo. What adds to the interest is that the viewer of the painting also sees what the photographer is shooting.

My first one in the series was a painting I call the Puerto Vallarta Photographer. The painting captures a balding man photographing his wife/girl friend between two Mexican Dancers on the Malacon of Puerto Vallarta. Its a high tone number and just like this one, it has lots of elements to paint and to integrate.

Some of the issues that this painting entails include, is the painting about the photographer or the plants? The reference photo had her shooting a picture of a banana tree. We have banana trees in Merced. So the facts and the background around this photo and a painting coming from the photo would have made this subject not so interesting. I decided to change the subject that she was painting to a group of plants that looked like red spiders.

My art instructor thought that the Puerto Vallarta one would have been stronger if the images over lapped. They are in this one!

Another issue with this painting was the simplification issue. Watercolors by their design simplify the image and allow the viewer to participate in the collection of the "washes" into a more emotional charged design that captures the feeling rather than the detail that a photgraph allows.

Values and contrast manipulate the viewers eyes to move through the watercolor. This is easier to do in watercolors since the elements have been simplified by the artist first.The movement of values and contrasts has specific trends. An "s " shape movement is common as is a cross. High, medium and low horizons need to be considered. Since Suzy's arm rolls the eye up in an "S" shape, as long as the contrasts with the backgroud are appropriate, the eye will roll through the figure to the spider plants. The spider plants being red and contrasting to the green and grey background cements the eyes on to the background. So the painting will be more about the plants than the figure.

If you check out my flickr acount on the left you can see where I am in making this painting,  I still have more areas to consider. Sue needs a dress top. I also need to define the wheelchair a little more so that the wheelchair does not look like the bottom part of her dress. More toning needs to be done with the spider plants and a darker green needs to be introduced to give the plants a little more room for contrast and definition.

So far this painting has been fun to do do. In the large scheme of things that what it is all about!
: ) Pat