Pied Peahen and Peonies

Pied Peahen and Peonies
Gouache and acrylic gouache on MDF coaster, 98 mm square

I wanted to paint on coasters like the cool kids. This piece ended up taking an inordinately long time to complete for what I had aimed for as something relatively ‘simple.’ Its being a miniature certainly accounts in part for it, though that in itself is hardly a departure for me. It may have more to do with using exclusively opaque media as opposed to my beloved watercolours; in particular, acrylic gouache, which demands altogether different handling as much as a different mental approach. Acrylic gouache also makes brushes expand; an especially vexing issue for me, so accustomed to my sharply pointed brushes, free-flowing water media, and intricate detail.

The peahen’s neck is more a sort of teal-blue-green in actuality, but unfortunately, neither my extremely indifferent phone camera nor my scanner (which is already curiously predisposed towards blue) were equal to capturing this, translating it into a flat, plain blue on screen.