The title of this painting is of course inspired by the shape of the leaves of this beautiful plant whose real name I do not remember. We have one in our dining room and it is now full of leaves!
In a shade of green, this canvas allowed me to practice a lot of color gradients with acrylic. A gradient is very simple to produce with oil since the paint dries slowly. My first attempt at acrylic (Waiting on the dock) in early 2004 shows how difficult I was with the acrylic gradient technique.
After several attempts (there must be at least 5 layers!), I succeeded in this canvas using a technique applied quickly. I first prepare at least three colors of different tones and apply the color with a cat’s tongue brush. Once I have applied a first strip of color, I continue with the same brush with a second color while going slightly back on the first strip. By going fast enough, it works quite well.
I also tried another gradient technique that I liked but that made it look too modern for this subject. This technique also consists of first preparing the color tones in fairly large quantities and applying it with the help of a fabric. The mixture produced by the fabric that slides on the canvas produces quite interesting but uneven mixed color spots. I’ll try it next time…
Philippe Bédard, Coeurs verts, October 2005, Acrylic on canvas, 40,5 x 30,5 cm, 16 x 12 po (7/8 po profile) - Private collection, Québec, Canada
