Slipper orchid

I can't believe I first started on this subject in October of last year! Lots of things - other paintings, commissions, other interests, all got in the way until I recently decided that any unfinished work was either to be completed - or dumped!
So - here are the last few stages of this painting.

Some background had been filled in for weeks, giving me the contrast needed to decide on the brightness of the uppermost petals. Work is progessing from left to right with pencils and with Sennelier. It was just a matter of more of the same to completion - the frame was waiting!

Paphiopedilum parishii © Niall O'Neill

Marmalade #4

This is close to being finished. I need to let it sit for a while and not even look at it, so I can better spot what remains to be done. The porcelain pot has given me some trouble in that, unusually, both edges are soft - the left is is shadow because of the light source, but the right is also in the cast shadow of the brass scuttle; so it loses definition on both sides. I used a warm neutral grey in the background, then did a contrasting foreground in cool blue, black and green; the reverse of what one might expect, but I needed the shadow of the scuttle in left back; and I wanted to have some contrast with the scuttle and kumquats - I had already achieved that for the porcelain. I hope it works!