Hoping for a warm and sunny day to paint these pale purple wild flowers near Coffee Park I had to settle for a cold and windy overcast day. These flowers only start to appear at the end of summer and usually last well into the fall. To get the colour right, I brought a small dab of carbazole violet (PV23) on my palette, it is the consistency of a strong grape juice colour or really dark red wine. Mixing it with water created that soft violet you see in the painting. The center of each tiny flower was an earthy brown. In the foreground, they just finished paving the bike path with brand new asphalt, which I made with dark magenta (PV55) and carbon black (PBk6), leaving a rectangle to fill in with orange yellow (PY97 + PO62).
Pale purple wild flowers horizontal, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024
I did a second painting with a slightly higher load of the carbazole violet, and made a close crop vertical format. I also pulled out the small yellow flowers by leaving white gaps then filling with yellow. Rusty orange leaves were falling on the ground, and strong wind whipped everything up. Looking at the two paintings now, the true colour of these flowers was somewhere in between, it was a delicate, nearly grey but slightly purple tint. Unusual elements like this can take a few tries to figure out the best approach.
Pale purple wild flowers vertical, watercolour 6 x 7.5" cold press, September 2024
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