Once More to the Poppy

Matalija Poppy2
10" x 10" watercolor 
on Arches cold press w/c paper

A year ago I painted a matalija poppy, was reasonably pleased, and gave the painting away. This month I decided to loop back and make another painting using the same photo--only this time using a square format. Above is the result. Below is the painting I made a year ago:

In some ways I'm surprised at how similar the paintings are, though I didn't refer at all to any images of the original painting.

I'd like to think the background is richer in the new painting. I watched a couple Youtube videos by Rick Surowicz, whose online class I'll be taking soon. He does some interesting things with negative painting in floral backgrounds that I found useful, especially his technique of adding middle and dark values to suggest structures of leaves, stems, etc., yet without trying to be literal about it. Let the design of the painting emerge from within, he suggests, rather than trying to be so faithful to the photograph. It was fun to get caught up in my own design on the background.

The paintings don't always get better when we create multiple versions of the same basic content, but it seems there is always something to be learned.