Don't Give Up

Winter is perfect for setting up something special in my studio like these white orchids. My plan was to offset the orchids with a dark indigo background after creating interesting negative shapes with the stems and leaves. However, as the saying goes "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." The background was too dark and to much of a stark contrast in value to the white orchids. I started painting cerulean blue shapes over some of the dark background to create a value darker than the flowers but lighter than the indigo. To get this to work it was necessary to layer several coats of the cerulean blue over the indigo. The moral is don't give up on a painting that you think still has potential. I love the way some of the indigo shows through the cerulean blue shapes and gives a nice softness to the background. Think of "mistakes" in watercolor as possible learning opportunities.

Happy Painting! Dennis Pendleton