Landscapes — gouache painting by Ray Patrick
A clump of bird of paradise in flower seen close and from slightly above, five blooms standing among their blade leaves against a dark ground.
Upright. The leaves fan out from the lower left corner and cross the whole sheet as hard diagonals; the flowers are spaced up that fan at uneven intervals and are the only horizontals in the picture.
Emerald, sap green and olive through the leaves against a near-black ground, with the flowers in cadmium orange, scarlet and cobalt. The sand at the right is a pale rose.
Flat opaque planes with square ends, each leaf one loaded stroke laid wet and left exactly where it landed, with the pale highlight along its spine drawn in last over dry paint.
Gouache on paper. Photographed on the studio table with the painting knife used.
Lower left, raypatrick, in orange over the dark ground, letters widely spaced.