Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Drama Queen


Drama Queen    $1,200
An original oil painting by Joan Terrell
36" x 36" x 1.5"D gallery wrap canvas, unframed

While in the atrium of the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, I could see through the glass ceiling that it was a most cloudy day. I wondered why I was there with my camera on such a day because when taking reference photos for paintings, high contrast sunny days are preferred. But c'est la vie, I digress. 

The atrium is huge and its glass ceiling looks like it's about two football fields high. That may be an exaggeration, but what happened next isn't. A shaft of light broke through the clouds and shot down on this glorious orchid, almost as if it wanted to beam this resplendent specimen to another planet for show and tell. I took a photo right before the clouds drifted in front of the sun again.

For one brief moment, there she was in all her glory with her pouty lip, the center of attention, the envy of common pansies, palms, and petunias. If she could have flipped her sepal for this gawking onlooker, she would have. Some paintings just name themselves.




Here's a reminder of how this painting started out...with a humble vine charcoal sketch on canvas. Every painting has humble beginnings, and so do drama queens. 





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