Day 78: Magnolia Flowers

I had the urge to paint something pretty today… something with bright, transparent colours that was fairly simple in construction so that I could just enjoy applying colour without worrying quite so much about the method.

And in my folder of inspirational pictures I found just the thing, a branch of lovely magnolia flowers. Just perfect for one of the new paints I bought recently, the Quinachridone Magenta.

The background has a light wash of Indigo with a little Alizarin Crimson in places, and the petals have been painted by laying clear water into each one individually and then dropping in the Magenta and allowing it to spread as the water dries. The first few were a bit messy but then I started to get the hang of it. However, you have to make sure you don’t paint up against any petals that are still drying, to avoid them running into each other, so it’s quite slow work.