Sunday, June 5, 2011

lady's slipper-Cypripedium calceolus-Concetta Flore

Here is a beautiful and rare orchid I sketched and painted, perched on a riverbank in Abruzzo National Park- Italy, last week-end.  It is a large plant by our orchid standards, with fascinating ball-shaped yellow lip and purplish ribbon-like petals. This clump was under trees in bright sunshine, with mottled shadows moving in the wind, so I gave up on rendering the chiaroscuro and concentrated on colour and shape. The water behind reverberated the light, lighting the plant from below as well than above- very intriguing.
I am responding to Kate's appeal in posting more often...
I couldn't colour everything on the spot because time was running out, but I fnished it at home, and that gave me the ease to find a satisfactory solution for the background.

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7 comments:

  1. Kate (Cathy Johnson)June 5, 2011 at 5:49 AM

    These are very beautiful, Concetta! I saw some pink lady's slippers in New York a couple of years ago, and you're right, it is difficult to get the image you're after when the shadows move! You solved that problem beautifully, along with the typical background.

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  2. Sandy Sandy ArtJune 5, 2011 at 7:34 AM

    Just gorgeous!

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  3. Kathleen WalkerJune 5, 2011 at 9:35 AM

    Beautifully done, I love Lady Slippers, as Kate mentioned here in the States in the Northeast where I am we have Pink Lady Slippers, I found some a week or so ago and made photographs which I hope to draw at a later date. I used to know where a white variant was to be found, but the area had a fire and all the Lady Slippers there are gone.

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  4. Kate (Cathy Johnson)June 5, 2011 at 9:55 AM

    I sat and painted all the wildflowers we found in that camp, including the pink lady's slipper. It was in 2007, but maybe I'll share now anyway...fascinating to see what blooms at one time!

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  5. ann @ studiohydeJune 5, 2011 at 11:50 AM

    Gorgeous painting and the background works so well.

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  6. Concetta FloreJune 6, 2011 at 5:06 AM

    thank you very much, I'm happy with this painting too, and might hang it in the AIPAN's (Italian Society of Nature artists) exhibition in L'Aquila next July.

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  7. sketching birdsJune 6, 2011 at 4:04 PM

    Simply beautiful, bellissimo!

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