Pleasant People and Water Lily Leaves

Sunday afternoon has a nice feel to it and today was no exception. There were a lot of visitors to my 'studio' glasshouse, and I had a very pleasant time indeed talking with them. Many had read about the mural on this blog, and were interested to see it in real life.

My painting task was to add some darker shadows to the boulders. I used Burnt Umber, Ultramarine Blue and a little Yellow Ochre and Titanium White.


I applied this colour sparsely to the crevices and lower edges of the boulders.

At present it looks rather stark, until I scumble and dry-brush in some medium tone to link the dark and light areas together. When I first used acrylics many years ago, I used to gasp in horror at this contrast - now I see in my mind what the next stage will be, so all is calm!

The above photograph was taken on Friday. Not being familiar with these lilies, I had wondered about the strange round orangey form that had appeared overnight. The close-up below shows its rolled edge and spiky appearance.

Today I was amazed to see a large new leaf!

It had a crumpled texture like seersucker fabric, and the spikes were just visible on the upturned edge.

I found it spell-binding. Looking at it closely was quite surreal, and I could imagine all kinds of artistic applications in multi media works! It is so awe-inspiring that this incredibly complex structure has grown over two-and-a-bit days ...