45. Waterlily #17

After one lily with no green, I switched to this one with a lot of green. I like the images with these huge lily pads. They are such a joy to paint! These giant sized lily pads apparently can support a lot of weight and stay afloat, despite the delicate nature of the leaf. I remember a photo in the Wilhelma park showing a toddler sitting on a lily pad :-) I'd like to someday try painting these lily pads and flowers in a more realistic style as well, as there is so much detail to capture in there.

Waterlily #17
Acrylics on board, 5 * 7 inches
© Nithya Swaminathan

I also tried changing my approach to this whole painting a little bit. In all previous paintings, I did a rough sketch and painted the water leaving out the floating leaves. This resulted in the water being a little choppy and not very smooth. With this one however, I did not do an underlying sketch at all. I just painted the water in various shades of green first. And then painted the leaves and flowers over it.:) So the edges where the water surrounds the other objects are not broken and choppy.

This one was also very quick, in complete contrast to the previous painting. This one almost painted itself. That's the most joyous state to paint in, where the painting simply "knows" where its going and we just go with the flow. Happens so rarely, but the feeling is completely worth the wait.

I'd greatly appreciate all your comments and any feedback on this one. Thanks for looking!