Original artwork description:

More than any other painting I've made, this one looks like it would taste incredible if licked, like some kind of Willy Wonka fantasy candy. But I've got to think that saliva would do bad things to a watercolor.

These are, glass gems, a.k.a. the things you can put in floral arrangements and aquariums. I had fun with the crazy variety of colors in this one, from Opera to Permanent Green Light, which I almost never get to use. The white, eye-like ovals are my small table lamp. You can see my hands in the bottom gems and window reflections at 9 o'clock on a lot of them. With objects like this, I like to include one that's a little different from the others, and in this case it's the red gem. It reminds me of a brain or a heart, and it was a blast to paint. All of them were!

Obviously (or not?) I have to use photographs for this kind of painting. I can't imagine our cats seeing a pile of these things--which are hard to stack--poised on the edge of a table and not feel the need to knock them over.

This is one of my most-honored and important paintings. It was selected for the Illinois Watercolor Society's national juried exhibition (on the year when I received signature status in the group). The city of Urbana, Illinois turned it into a mural a couple of years ago. And it marks the first time I created a full-page watercolor of shiny objects like this. I love it, and I hope you do, too!

Materials used:

watercolor

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