Winter is a great time to devote to painting. The gardens are no longer in need of attention and I have lots of reference photos taken during the year for inspiration.
In October I began painting this flower in preparation for a demo for the Vermont Watercolor Society Annual Meeting at the Middlebury Inn in Vermont. The request was for a demonstration of how to paint clean darks in a floral, including the background. I painted most of the light and middle values before the event and saved the darker values for the demo. Here are some steps of the painting.
FINISHED PAINTING
Notice that I merged the background with some areas of foliage and petals by using softened edges and matching values
Doing that helps make the flower more believable, avoiding the look of a flower cut out and pasted on a dark background.

NEWS WINTER 2014 – 2015
VERMONT WATERCOLOR SOCIETY DEMONSTRATION
NATIONAL JURIED SHOWS
DANCING WATER
April
American Watercolor Society 148th Annual International;
Salmagundi Club; New York
MAGICAL MARSH
March
Watercolor Society Of Alabama 74th Annual Exhibition: Eastern Shore Art Center, AL
PUBLICATIONS