Del Mar Bromeliad

I had never seen a flower like this before I found one blooming at Sherman Gardens in Corona Del Mar, CA.  It was so perfect and sturdy looking, it didn't seem real.

 It is a bromeliad - Aechmea "Del Mar", which looks nothing like any Bromeliad I've ever seen.  I wonder if these flowers last as long as typical Bromeliad flowers.  I think I need to search for these in the local nurseries so I can add them to our garden.  They are very showy flowers and I love the color.

My plan was to paint this in a looser fashion like I learned in Karen Frey's workshop but I had done the drawing for this painting several weeks ago on 300# Arches paper.  That is a very thick paper which sucks up the water and makes it hard (for me) to control the paint action so it ended up being tighter than I wanted but I am pretty happy with the results anyway.  I used to really like 300# paper but  I find that if I'm trying to mingle colors, they look really nice while they're wet but because they stay wet for so long, the colors lose their individual properties and blend too much.  I have a lot of this thicker paper but I think I will be using the 140# paper instead for awhile.

Del Mar Bromeliad
Image Size 20" x 15"
Watercolor

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Category › Del Mar Bromeliad , nancy goldman , paintings of bromeliads , watercolor bromeliads , watercolor paintings of flowers