Mirabilis Jalapa

4x4in. oil on canvas panel - sold

Full disclosure: these flowers may not be Mirabilis Jalapa but Google gave me a very similar image/article result that looked identical to the reference photo that I took and I'm going with it. That being said, I loved the pinks, purples and blues that made up the petals and I really like the pops of orange that stand out against the petals. I also wanted to try out making a more "blurred" background so I really pushed the brushstrokes in the background to give them less of a form feel and more of a feeling of other foliage behind these three flowers. This is the third and final painting in my series of testing out the different Gamvar varnishes, and this painting is varnished with the "matte varnish" - another full disclosure: I don't really like this varnish. I felt that it really dulled everything out and washed out the darker values that I had in the background compared to the flowers in the foreground, making them appear to be very similar in value. That being said, I'm still glad that I tried it out to see what it looks like - it even gives me vibes of those old 90's tween novel covers.