Flaming Parrot Tulip

15x22 watercolor on 140 lb Saunders cold press paper, a wet in wet approach to this lovely frilly open tulip from one of my photos.  With floral art I like to explore all angles and take unusual viewpoints when setting up the composition such as this macro view.
COPYRIGHT 2020 Kay Smith.

Passion Flower

9x12 inks on paper (140 lb Canson) done this afternoon.  I started with acrylic inks then used 2-3 colored India inks since only got the primaries.  Probably I have thousands of floral photos and will not live long enough to paint them all.  So this summer that begins Sunday I'll try to do more from those.  This is a macro view of purple and white passion flower, brush only, and it looks quite an abstraction.  The top white petal was inadvertently painted over so I used white India ink and did a calligraphic line there.
Image is COPYRIGHT 2015 Kay Smith.

Carnation Carnival

A bit tired of doing Christmas images (not really!) so I plunged right back into the floral world by drawing and painting the lowly carnation which is my January birth month's flower. Always the cheapest you can buy they are stuck into bouquets for fillers or in funeral arrangements. How sad! I said that this common specimen is so often overlooked by artists...by me, at least in pursuit of more worthy blooms such as the romantic rose, the classic calla lily, or the terrific tulip.

So with that in mind after my drawing was done on 11x15 Strathmore 140 lb paper, I spritzed cobalt blue, arylide yellow, and permanent rose onto dry paper. I used a black and white photo and not color to get as spontaneous as possible. Next I began laying in the darks and wanted this flower to appear multicolored and mysterious, not at all like its usual self. So a pale pink carnation becomes the belle of the ball. Just in time for Christmas! Ho, ho, ho! I hope you like it!