"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I finished this painting this afternoon. It was painted for the July project for Watercolor Workshop where we were to paint "Something Hot!" After much consideration, I thought of hot peppers, which I love to look at due to their beautiful color and shiny surface. This is a small painting - 5 1/2" x 7 1/2 " and is painted on Canson 140 lb. cold-pressed water color paper. No special techniques were used except I tried to use primary and secondary colors without mixing them - trying to stick to pure blue, red and green for color contrast. I wanted the peppers to sort of vibrate the eyes:) Unfortunately, a lot of the color was lost during the photo process. Oh well................ lol! As far as the watercolors are concerned - I used a real conglomeration of paints and reds from at least 3 different companies.

5 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Interesting that you said you lost some of the color during the photographing of the painting. That happens to me all of the time (darned flash). I was thinking that peppers are usually a deeper red, but it sounds like your peppers are too! LOL I think you did a beautiful job on this and what a great choice for 'something hot'!

Ginny Stiles said...

Oh BARB...these are splendid!!! You DID paint veggies! :-) And HOT they are. (I usually turn off my flash during photos and try to either take the photo in indirect sunlight OR under an Ott light or other good art bulb. But you are right, something gets lost anyway. Tell me if you glazed these peppers...did you put on many layers? I did a bench once in red red red like that and the only way I could get the desired depth of red was to glaze many times. These DO vibrate and my lips sting from the "hotness". Just GREAT. ps. Are you going to enter the next portrait contest on Global Love-in? I saw you were there last time.

RH Carpenter said...

Hot and spicy and very very well painted - I would enjoy looking at this one a long time. I like the small size, too - means the subject is really in your face on the paper plane.

Barbra Joan said...

Hey Barb.....Hot Stuff !!! and very well done too.!!!

Barb Sailor said...

AutumnLeaves...sometimes I have trouble with my camera getting the colors true, but most of the time the colors are right. Reds are the hardest for me to get.

Ginny...yes - I did paint veggies! I took the picture under an Ott light, but still had trouble with the reds. All the other colors were true to the painting.
I didn't glaze the peppers - i painted them wet in wet and dropped in the intense colors and then lifted the highlights with a damp brush in a very controlled manner. I will probably enter the next portrait contest:) Hope you had a restful weekend.

Rhonda...I just recently started painting smaller due to a special SWAP group I belong to and find that I sort of like painting small once in a while:)

Barbra Joan...Thanks for the compliments - ALWAYS appreciated!