This is the first floral acrylic painting I have done, of a tropical Bird of Paradise that I have growing in my front yard (I have a ‘brown’ thumb so its lucky this poor plant is still alive:). I really love the striking colours in this tropical flower, which is actually a native plant of South Africa and is also known as a Strelitzia.

This piece was definitely experimental, and a lesson in completing the background first - originally I had the flower backlit with a studio style background but I couldn’t achieve the halo lighting effect that I was visualizing so settled on a more abstract background.

The first image shows the whole painting, but after playing around with it in my graphics program I think for framing I prefer the closer crop of the second image. Overall I am happy with it, but at this stage I’m not sure if it needs more glazing or if it is ready to spray with gloss varnish so I will leave it for a couple of days and then take another look at it.

Above: Full painting Below: Cropped

“Bird of Paradise”, 8″x11″ Acrylic on canvas

More information on growing this beautiful tropical plant can be found on the Tropical gardening website.

Michelle

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 4th, 2006 at 1:28 pm and is filed under Floral Art, Abstract Art, Contemporary Art, All Other Art.

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