Portuguese Cypress II

This large mixed media work on paper was inspired by and based on the artists' on-site drawings of a cypress tree in a garden in the Alentejo region of Portugal. The dense needlelike leaves create a variety of whimsical and lyrical forms, edges, and relationships. This abstract interpretation is the artists' response to patterns she observed during a concentrated drawing session last spring in Protgual. The background pattern is from an old Portuguese Azulejo ceramic tile. It was painted by hand with a exciting new color in the artist's palette, Verditer Blue, an opaque watercolor, which resulted in a rich color contrasted with the more transparent deep blue-green-gray. The tree was painted with watercolor and gouache with the line work done by hand with a steel nib pen.