Yellow Flower and Ink

Yellow Flower and Ink was part of a series of paintings I did in the summer of 2004 shortly after I finished my PhD in London Ontario. The idea was to sell them at art shows in the park but that didn't go so well, although I found a dime on the sidewalk on the way back from an art show, so I can say that I made a dime at least! The painting was done completely from imagination, though at the beginning of my painting career (1989 until early 90's) I did paint a lot of florals, so I kind of knew how to depict a flower.

Around this time I was experimenting with Chinese black ink, which I had obtained while taking lessons at the Chinese art and calligraphy group in London Ontario. The ink outlines you see were actually applied last... in other words, I did the flower scene using conventional old English-style techniques which do not use black or white, and then when it was dry, applied the ink outlines over top. The white star-burst patterns were created by throwing salt in the wet watercolour, or by dropping on a bead of clean water at the precise moment to create a controlled backwash.

5x7" cold press. 2004