Black Tulip Magnolia

Painting this variety of Magnolia has been on my to do list for over a year. At the start of Spring a year ago we visited a beautiful garden centre in the Adelaide foothills and a large Black Tulip Magnolia tree was in full bloom. Goblet shaped fragrant blooms that can be as dark as nearly black and in a range of reds.

I wanted to be un restricted in my composition so I could build it up intuitively but of course I needed to have an idea where the blooms would be before I started on my background wash.

My colour choices

I wet the paper going around the shapes I wanted to keep unpainted for the blooms. I worked wet into wet for my first wash allowing a variety of colours to mingle and play on the paper.

When my first wash had dried I built up the colour in glazes on the blooms. More twigs and branches were added and I lifted out some light on these by wetting with clean water and a small brush and a little dab with a tissue.

When working this way you often have to change your initial thoughts and react with what is happening on your painting.