"Flower Vendor" watercolor 22" X 17.5"

Flower Vendor by April M. Rimpo

Flower Vendor is my third painting about vendors.  In each case the vendors seem to be small business owners.  This painting and The Vendor are based on people here in the United States, while Fruit Vendors features Guatemalan vendors.  Perhaps I am drawn to these because I grew up in a family that has a small business and know the long hours it takes to make a venture succeed. Each of these paintings capture the vendors concentrating on their wares. 

Flower Vendor

watercoclor
22 " X 17.5" image

28 " X 23.5" framed

$1100

Available at HorseSpirit Arts Gallery

Phone: 410-461- 4505
Email: info@HorseSpiritArtsGallery.com 
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Although the vendor is an important character in this painting, it is the flowers I wanted to highlight.  To accomplish this, I used blue pigments to mute the background and the woman while keeping the central flowers bright warm colors: yellows, reds, and pinks. The woman has a red apron to help create a consistent color scheme throughout the painting, but the red is more subdued than in the flowers; I added blues and purples to reduce the vibrancy of the apron.  

I also reflected golden and red colors from the bouquet in the vendor’s face but again used blues and greens in her flesh tones to keep you focused on the brilliant flowers.  Of course I want you to look at the woman, but when all is said and done, it is her love of the flowers that I want you to admire.

At left is the triad color scheme I chose for the painting.  I ended up shifting the yellows toward gold and the reds toward pinks, but I did retain the concept of the blue triad.  Primarily cobalt blue is used in the initial wash to help push back the background and much of the woman allowing the bright colors in the flowers to be the star.  I used a very wet wash in the background so a wide variety of colors could mix on the page creating a beautiful backdrop.  After the first background wash had dried I added a second dark wash created from a variety of dark pigments. As the second wash was drying I sprayed it with a mist of water to create water spots, which further diffused the background and revealed some of the underlying color.

I happen to love drips in watercolor paintings since it reveals the fluidity of the medium.  I wanted drips across the bottom of the painting.  Although the woman was placing flowers in a vase I decided to change it to wrapped flowers where the stems are sticking out of the bottom of the wrapping.  This way the stems could also be created from drips.

Other "vendor paintings" include:

• The Vendors
• Fruit Vendors 

April has prints of many of her paintings,  if you don't see one in her online store ask her about availability.

* Contract April regarding purchasing outside the United States