Elephant Ears (SOLD)

Elephant Ears
Watercolor and gouache on paper
8”x10” (on 9x12 arches rough watercolor paper)
Chris Breier ©2105

The Erie County Botanical Gardens is a good place to look for subject matter. I used the doorway that leads into the Palm Dome to frame the large grouping of plants in the center, and the curved path helps to  direct the viewers eye through the painting.

The difficult part was the large areas of white that make up the woodwork and structure of the dome. In a painting, white objects are rarely pure white; a white object is influenced by all of the colors around it. If it’s in shadow then it’s illuminated by the light from the sky, which is why shadows often appear slightly blue.