Judith Freeman Clark, paintings

Step #1 Finishing "Mardi Gras Iris," which I’d shown in my previous post, meant identifying the colors I used when starting the painting several months ago. I'd neglected to keep color notes, so I had to do some paint swatches to be sure I'd get them right. I wanted to stay with mostly transparent, and staining or semi-staining colors.  Holbein's "Opera" -- an almost neon-bright pink that is fairly easy to identify -- was the main color I used in the center iris blossom. Pigments used in manufacturing Opera make it a 'fugitive' color (unstable, and not very permanent), so I wouldn't normally use it in focal-point areas of a painting. But in this painting, I was experimenting with a more vivid palette and wanted to determine how Opera interacts with other pigments. I do know other watercolor artists use this color to good advantage, especially in detail areas. Background runs and blooms After a little experimenting with color swatch...

I usually have a few paintings and sketches going simultaneously, partly to allow damp paintings to dry thoroughly, and partly because I am easily bored if I have only one painting in progress at a time...  Right now, I'm working on two very different paintings • A floral that I'm approaching with a question: "Can this painting be saved?" The tentative title is "Mardi Gras Iris." It measures 11" x 15." • The vertical work below, "Lochside Croft," 11" x 20" is actually the left-hand side of a large, square-format painting. Because it was not working out, I cut it in half. After I did, I sold the right-hand side! I'm hoping this one can be salvaged...  time will tell.