Domaine de L'Orangerie, Seychelles

Somehow I forgot to post this painting, I did it in Feburary 2011 on a trip to the Seychelles, on the island of La Digue at a fancy resort called Domaine de L'Orangerie. This view was right from the back porch of the house. It was really in the middle of a jungle, there were these giant bats flying around the top of the mountain in the distance, and all kinds of wild plants. The flowers look bigger than they really were, they were actually part of the manicured garded behind the guest house.

I talked a lot about how to create the illusion of distance, and this is a good example of how to use blue to create that illusion. The mountain in the back was begun as a nearly pure layer of blue... when it was about half dry, I added in the light green of the trees, and then when that was about half dry I added in the darker grey of the shadows. Meanwhile, I worked on the foreground flowers, making sure to not let the colours blend into the wet background. It takes a bit of practice to get the timing right... if you spend too much time on the foreground than the blue dries and you are basically screwed. Practice makes perfect.

Domaine de L'Orangerie, Seychelles Mountain, Bats Flowers, 5.5x7.5" cold press 2011 (No. 1277)