Portraits — watercolor painting by Ray Patrick
A laughing boy with a heavy fringe of brown hair, seen close and full face, against a flooded ground of green and gold.
The head fills the sheet and is cropped at the crown, with the shoulders barely indicated in a few pale strokes. The colour behind is poured in from the right and left to find its own shape.
Umber, violet and rose through the face with the shadows pushed to a cool plum. The ground is cadmium yellow, sap green and viridian; the mouth is the one hot note, a flooded coral.
The face is built in small overlapping facets of transparent colour laid wet on dry, so every plane has a hard edge. The ground behind is the opposite — one flooded pour allowed to run and granulate.
Watercolour on paper.
No signature visible within the painted area.