Rhapsody In Blue and Violet Watercolor Painting

As I sit here in my studio posting this blog it is 5 degrees outside and I am dreaming of spring when flowers will bloom and the days will be nice and warm. I painted this in the summer when the hollyhocks were full grown and the days were long and full of warm sunshine. It is part of an ongoing series of large florals that I have been working on for several years. It is 40×60 and I included myself in the photo to give a visual image of the size. Working on a watercolor this size presents special problems like the paper warping and the colors running together so I allow the medium to take over and work with the flowing colors. By concentrating on colors, values, shapes, and edges and allowing the water and paint to do some of the work I come up with passages that I could not have predicted. The more I work with what is happening rather than trying to control everything the more exciting the process. The belief that watercolor cannot be corrected is a myth and there are several areas in this painting that I wiped out and painted over. I can hardly wait until this summer when I can go to Denver Botanic Gardens and be surrounded by flowers.