Water Lillies

by Nazima Mohammed
(Trinidad & Tobago)

I recently visited the 'Wild Fowl Trust' located in Pointe-A-Pierre, Trinidad and was blown away by the lush green plantlife, bird, and especially the lillies. So I decided to take the task of capturing them not only with my camera but also on my canvas using oils.
I walked with my stretched canvas paper already prepared with layers of gesso. I found a suitable spot and set up my easel, quickly I sketched in my water lillies using a charcoal stick and blended in the colors with my fast drying acrylics. Using shades of greens: lemon, emerald and virdian. I used some ultramarine blue also for darker areas and some black and brown for the background. The rain was about to pour down so I quickly gathered my stuff and packed them into the trunk of the car and left for home. Later that evening I went back to work on my lillies, blending in my oil paints to match the colors of my acrylics and moved down the painting....The flowers were painted last I used some chineese white and crimson for the bright areas and some dark brown and burnt sienna for the dark areas.
It took me about four hours to complete, I just couldn't stop painting so I finished the entire painting that same evening and left to dry.