My Lucky Paintings
Have you ever heard of a lucky painting? In the gallery you will see two and they both are paintings of iris. This particular flower grows in my backyard right outside the backdoor. It blooms every year and never seems to stay long enough. I have always loved iris and especially the delicate color of this one. They are such a fun flower to paint with all of their curves and frills. Getting lost in the details is easy to do with the iris.
I also love painting hummingbirds and butterflies. So I decided to try two different paintings with each. I always think of my mother when I paint a hummingbird because this was her favorite bird as well. Although this particular one is painted in oil, I love to paint these little splashes of color in watercolor too. I can just wet the paper and drop in a brilliant color and it seems to blend in just the right places. Hummingbirds are such interesting little creatures because they are here and gone in an instant and you only see a
glimpse of an iridescent flash of color as they zoom from one flower to the next. I always find myself wanting to see more, hoping they will stay just one more second. When I began this painting of an iris, the hummingbird was not in the composition. I knew that something was missing. Without this beautiful little bird this iris would never be a complete painting. So with that in mind, I added this little creature to the composition. Luckily I left enough room for this to happen. However the beauty of oil is that it is very forgiving. If there had not been enough room then it is possible to paint over and make needed changes. These changes will never be seen in the final work. This is not a possibility when using some other mediums.
The iris with the two butterflies is completed in watercolor. The second butterfly was not in the original composition and was added later. I felt like there was too much white space left in the painting and something else was needed in the composition. I was fortunate that it worked out because watercolor isn’t as easily changed as oil. Both paintings could have easily gone south due to composition not being completely worked out before beginning. Sometimes I get excited and begin to paint before the composition is complete. I guess that both paintings could be called my lucky paintings. Lucky that they didn’t end up in the trash!
