One of my favourite spring flowers is the Mourning Widow (Geranium phaeum). They can spread like a weed but that is only a big plus for me. I've had them for many years in my garden and also some varieties of it. But still the best one is this dark, almost black one. The white one is very pretty too though...
Years ago I made a plant portrait of this Geranium but now I decided to do only the flower. The rich, deep red is a challenging in watercolour. This dark burgundy, maroonish colour needs to be painted in only a few layers. The colour lifts very easy when you re-wet it or paint over it. So you have to be careful. The colours I used for the dark petals was a mix of mainly Roman Szmal's Perylene Violet (PV29), W&N's Dioxazine Violet (PV23), Permanent Rose (PV19) and in the very darkest parts some MaimeriBlu Payne's Grey (PB66). This last one is called Payne's Grey but is different than any other Payne's Grey I know. The pigment is PB66, which is Indigo. Perhaps not as lightfast as I would like but for mixing it is good enough. Especially when the shadow colour needs to look a bit cool and blueish.
It has been a while since I last painted a flower. And painting one that is enlarged feels very different from the life-size drawings I normally make for botanical art. But it was a fun little project.
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