Fascinating Fireweed
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
“Fireweed III” original acrylic and watercolor painting by Gail Niebrugge, sold.
Hot on the trail of understanding the stages of fireweed, I ran out of pre-painted textured boards, so I turned to a fresh sheet of heavy rag paper and my box of brushes. After a quick pencil sketch of the fireweed at the early seed stage I applied a multi-colored wash of watercolor with spatters and salt produced speckles. Allowing much of the underpainting to show, I developed the details and the dark spaces between leaves with acrylic. The result is a light, airy, comfortable painting depicting fireweed at the stage, where the long pods from previous blossoms turn red and the lower pods split and spew fuzzy fluff. Gorgeous!
More tomorrow,
Gail Niebrugge, wildflower artist
