Red Lily 

11X14 

Oil on Linen Panel 

Painted from photograph by Sei Nakatugawa

This lily appears to be a rather simple subject. Sei Nakatugawa's work tends to be very dramatic. At first, that resulted in a rather dark and bright painting, but I was uncomfortable with it. Since then I have painted it, and painted it and painted it and painted it ..... I even sent it out to family and friends as completed, but I just was not satisfied. Finally, yesterday I painted all the light areas of the flower itself a bright pink. When Jud came in he said, "I liked it better before." I did too, so I began again today thinking that I didn't want any black in the flower, so the it is painted in cadmium red medium, scarlet, and alizarin crimson. I'm happier. The flower even photograph red whereas before it photographed orange.