“Poinsettia, the Christmas flower.”
A very busy week at work. And at art. I managed to finish another watercolour (watercolour is my newest experiment – I think that by learning watercolour will improve my painting skill in oils and I will have a new medium to express my artistic feelings). I also reworked a still life I did last week with orange fruits on an orange background. And after fulfilling all my other obligations, I was left with only half of Sunday for my weekly painting. Days are very short now, hence I chose to do a still life (again) – probably, throughout the winter will be my favourite subject mater.
During the week, doing some shopping at the supermarket, we ended up buying this beautiful poinsettia flower in a pot. Perfect subject for a still life. Poinsettia is the unofficial Christmas flower and alongside Christmas cactus, mistletoe, green ivy, holly and few others is used as decoration for the festive period. It originates in Mexico and the Aztecs were using it to treat fever and for obtaining red dye. The Aztec name of the plant was “Cuetlaxochitl”; the western name comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett who brought the flower outside Mexico.
I did the painting alla prima in a 3 hours session.
I used some de Mayerne medium in the final layer. I used a palette with 2 blues (cerulean and cobalt), 3 yellows (cadmium light and medium and yellow lemon), 3 reds (alizarin crimson, lake red light and another light red), warm white, transparent brown oxide and van dyke brown.
So, here it is:
“Poinsettia, the Christmas flower.”
Oil on linen.
30 X 40cm (12” X 16”)
