On the flagstone path near the swimming pool, I found a very tiny, very dead moth. So tiny that I almost missed seeing him altogether. I pinched a bloom off the nearby lantana to lay next to him to get some perspective on how truly small he was. The head of one lantana cluster is just over 1” across, making the moth maybe 1/2”.
I was also testing Gansai paints in my journal. I like the bright pop of warm colors against the cool grey toned paper. I may have to use Gansai more often! Because my normal selection of watercolors run to a more cool, subdued color range, maybe a warm beige toned paper would be a better choice for me in the future. Contrasts are a good thing!
The quote on the left side is from artist Favian Ee. I read it last December and it has stayed in my mind — so I looked it up and wrote it down. The main line that caught my attention is “. . . much of life can only be understood in retrospect, but it must be lived forward in faith . . .”
I like that quote. Your yellow flower jumps off the page! It is beautiful. Your tiny moth is so sweet!
ReplyDeleteGansai watercolors are highly pigmented and slightly more opaque than western watercolors, so they do seem to jump off the page! At least on normal paper; Etegami gasen paper has a “blur degree” — it absorbs wet paint or ink, reducing the intensity some.
ReplyDeleteThe moth as dead, “feet” up in the air — sad, but the wing colors were brilliant!