Desert Poppies

I primarily work in mixed media, with a combination of alcohol inks, acrylic inks, water colors, and heavier bodied acrylic paints.  All of my paintings start out with an underpainting.  I have no idea at that point what the painting will look like. I just work intuitively, and at some point the painting tells me what it is going to be.  As I look at the interplay of shapes and colors, the image becomes obvious to me as to what direction the painting will take.

The alcohol and acrylic inks lend a vibrancy that is reminiscent of the natural intense pigments found in nature.  It particularly mimics the vivid hues of the blossoms seen after a long, dry, desert winter.  The heavy spring rains that occur in April yields to the blooms occurring in the following weeks (May).

In “Desert Poppies”, I tried to capture this window of vegetation and abundance of growth that occurs in an otherwise barren desert landscape.