"Koi Pond" 6"x6" fluid acrylic on Aquabord

Koi Pond by April M Rimpo just finished

Most of my paintings are much larger than 6" X 6", but recently I felt like painting while staffing the gallery. You can see I used mostly small brushes on this one.  

Koi Pond was done on Aquabord which bubbles when you first apply water and wet paint to the surface, so the larger brushes you can see were used for that first layer or two when there was more water than paint and the goal was to eliminate the bubbles before I got too much pigment on the painting.  

I used fluid acrylic but used many layers to build up the depth of color, just as you do with watercolor.  This approach results in great variations in the greens of the lily pads and blues of the water.  

Koi Pond 6"X6" by April M Rimpo
(The painting was varnished before this photograph
was taken, so the colors in the lily pads was lost
in reflections off the varnish.)

The same is true for the koi. In order to get a rich red or orange you need to start with a layer of yellow and then apply red over it once the yellow is dry.  If you just use a red to begin with you won't have the same vibrance.

I think this small painting has strong enough color to support a wider frame than I generally use on painting of this size.  If you want to see it in person, I'll have Koi Pond at my solo exhibit at Ranazul tapas wine bistro in November. You'll find Ranazul at 8171 Maple Lawn Blvd, Fulton, MD 20759. A reception with tapas will be held on November 8th from 4 - 5 PM.  

This painting is SOLD.

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Copyright April M Rimpo 2015 All Rights Reserved. You may share my work with attribution and a link to this source site, but all other uses are prohibited.