Playing with Color - Cools

Hinahina

10 x 7 soft pastels on Art Spectrum Colourfix

Miki Willa

Before I talk about color, let me explain about hinahina. It is a type of Florida hanging moss that is an air plant. In Hawaii, it is often used to increase the beauty of the plumeria trees, especially when they have lost their leaves. Some people think it is Spanish moss, and I don't know how that is different from Florida moss. It is also locally referred to as Pele's Hair. Our neighbor has many bunches of hinahina hanging from her plumeria and I finally decided I wanted to paint it because I really like the look.

Now the color. Hinahina is light gray in color with a hint of green. I decided to exagerate the greens and see what would happen. That made me want to play with purples in the limbs and trunk of the tree. I put in a very cool green for the grass and a cool beige for the building in back. It was all too cool and looked very flat. I warmed up the greens in the grass and then decided to go with a complementary rust for the wall. Overall, I am happy with the color combination, but it isn't quite what I was going for. I really wanted to punch the color up further beyond reality. I thought this would be a good composition to do that. Somehow, my mind just won't go there. This is about as far as I can push it at this point in time. Most of the time I was painting this, my brain kept a running monologue about how it is okay to experiment this time, but tomorrow we are going with local color. Fear not, tomorrow I am going in a totally different direction.