Painting II Project 2

Sarah Zilnik Project 2

For this painting I decided to go with a more organic approach, and explore the creativity of a semi-realistic, semi-abstract piece. My props consisted of an orchid protruding out of a purple glass vase. This part of the piece would be my realistic approach, achieving the high and low keys within the flowers proved to be quite a challenge. Painting a flower that to the average eye is considered white is no easy task. Discovering the natural blues, yellows and violets within the petals helped form the shape and shadows they contained. The glass vase begins as sharp and defined then decays into the background, half because it is the bridge towards the abstract and half because, when I first painted it, it didn’t look very good. Anyway, it continues towards the abstract part of the piece which is the background, in an effort to indulge in experimentation I chose to create the background out of vertical strokes of vibrant blues and reds paired with muted rainbows of violet and yellow. To continue the light that the flowers portrayed I dulled the saturated colors of the background as they grew towards the top of the flowers. In the end, I am extremely pleased at the way it turned out, though to me it resembles something that could be purchased at a department store, in a way it is not because instead of someone else’s vision and brush work, it is my own, something that can’t be found in any department store, yet. :)