Hibicus Flowers: Loose Looks in Constrained Way

During my last days in Yogyakarta I meant to work on a painting of Hibicus flowers. It was a memento for Mr & Ms Jarret, who have generous enough to let us use their guest house during our stay in Yogya. The flowers were planted at the house and bloomed while I was staying there.

Since giving birth to Nawang, my 3 MO baby girl, I only had very few hours to paint so I decided to paint the flowers loosely rather than botanically.

Having the best time at 3.30 to 6 a.m. and a half or quarter of an hour or a few minutes while the baby awoke, in fact I worked on the loose looks in constrained way. I was ready to be interrupted anytime while painting. Because of the condition, sometimes I couldn't keep any eye on my watercolour washes. I tried to make only a single stroke or two that I predicted to look good and let it dry then check it out later after taking care of my baby.

I used much of wet into wet washes on this painting. I made certain area of paper wet with clean water then applied strokes or drops of pigment. Or sometimes I dropped water on a wet pigmented area. I love wet into wet washes; it was fun to see 'unexpected' results and those characteristic watercolour effects. I still can enhance (or correct) the colours by applying the same technique over existing washes after they were dry. | The Hibicus Flower was painted on A2 Fabriano Artistico HP paper with Winsor & Newton Artists' watercolours.