Cycad Painting 7

© Ellen Blonder

Here's the bromeliad shaping up. 

© Ellen Blonder

And here it is with the colorful flower bracts. It needed something on the right for balance, so I've added some fan palm leaves.

Cycad Painting 6

© Ellen Blonder

I've got to add some color. I can't let this just be a goat by himself in green grass. There's a bromeliad I've been wanting to paint, and I now have it sketched into the lower left corner. I'll decide what else to add after I work on that.

Cycad Painting 5

© Ellen Blonder

This is a backward way to paint, using a size 0 brush to add background behind the finished cycad fronds and around the goat's fur. It feels like it's going to take forever, but at least I can feel space in the picture now. 

Cycad Painting 4

© Ellen Blonder

I should know my own tendencies better than I do. As soon as I washed in some background, the painting feels anchored. I'm still not sure where this is headed, but giving the elements some solid ground suddenly makes this feel better.

Cycad Painting 3

©Ellen Blonder

I've been letting this marinate, not sure how to proceed, but the cycad looked lost alone on the canvas. I decided to add a goat, based on my photo of this character I saw near Kilauea, Kauai. He was not wild, but in a grassy area behind a fence. Did he know how magnificent he looked, so different from the other goats in the same pasture? The way he posed, I suspect he did.

Of course, I still don't know where this painting is headed. Do I add an egret above? Add some torn sketchbook pages to make a collage?

Cycad Painting 2

© Ellen Blonder

Cycads intrigue me, with their primitiveness, as if a dinosaur could appear behind it at any moment. My reference for this was a handsome specimen from the Mcbride Garden in Kauai.

I didn't photograph this in progress, but here's the pretty finished painting of it against the prepared background. I have an idea to surround it with other bits of Hawaiian flora and fauna, so it looks like a big page torn out of a sketchbook, without more of a background than this.

Cycad Painting - Beginning

 I inherited this 40 x 50-inch canvas from my mother-in-law, and while the painting was in bad shape, it was on heavy linen, mounted on a sturdy frame, something worth saving. When the paint began peeling off, I thought I'd try stripping it.

Much of the paint peeled off in strips, but the rest had to be scraped with a palette knife.

The rest of the paint was stuck fast, so I could only cover it with gesso. I thought I could make the underlying texture work for me, although I had no idea what I was going to paint.

Cycad Painting - Beginning

 I inherited this 40 x 50-inch canvas from my mother-in-law, and while the painting was in bad shape, it was on heavy linen, mounted on a sturdy frame. When the paint began peeling off, I thought I'd try stripping it.

Much of the paint peeled off in strips, but the rest had to be scraped with a palette knife.

The rest of the paint was stuck fast, so I could only cover it with gesso. I thought I could make the underlying texture work for me, although I had no idea what I was going to paint.

Dark Rooster - Final

© Ellen Blonder

I've added grass details to the middle ground and details to the background. I knew this painting would take a while, and I'm happy to finally be done. 

Dark Rooster - 9

© Ellen Blonder

I like the ferns, but now I realize the sky is too dull and I don't like the background tree trunks. It's time to paint them out. 

Dark Rooster - 8

© Ellen Blonder

The Hawaiian morning glory on in the left foreground wasn't working, so I'm going to try ferns instead. 

Dark Rooster - 7

© Ellen Blonder

I'm back on the mainland, eager to add details to the blue jade vine. It's a complicated plant, but more so in the drawing than the painting. 

Dark Rooster - 6

© Ellen Blonder

It's time to work on the background plants. I'm sorry I will also be returning to the mainland before I can finish this.

Dark Rooster - 5

© Ellen Blonder

What was I thinking? Croton leaves have intricate color patterns that feel impossible to capture, and it feels like it's taking forever to paint.

Dark Rooster - 4

© Ellen Blonder

The next thing I want to work on is the yellow croton in the foreground.

Dark Rooster - 3

© Ellen Blonder

I'm working on the rooster first to anchor the painting. It's just too messy overall otherwise to see what's happening.