cherry blossoms

Cherry Blossoms in a Blue Pitcher (watercolor 12 x 19) $250

We planted a two ornamental cherry trees the year we moved into this house.  Five years later the trees put on quite a show each Spring.  The branches I take inside don’t make a dent in the abundance of blooms.

I made two fundamental design decisions in painting this image.  Both help make the blossoms pop.  First, rather than paint the blue gray evergreens in the actual background, I added an abstract green background to compliment the pink blossoms.   Second I painted my white window blue.  I also moved the branches around to improve the composition.

I began by masking the blossoms.  Then I painted the background and window casing.  The blossoms and branches came last.

The palette was raw sienna, new gamgee (yellow), phthalo blue, quinacridone magenta, opera pink, dioxazine purple, and burnt sienna.  The background is raw sienna and phthato blue painted wet into wet.  The casing is phthalo blue and burnt siena.  The blossoms are magenta and opera pink grayed with phthalo blue or diaxazine purple.   The leaves are a wash of new gamgee and magenta washed over with dioxazine purple.

This painting is currently for sale on-line at my Etsy shop.