watercolor painting by Ray Patrick
A mouth again, lips parted, with gold laid along the upper lip and a dark seam between — the third of a close-cropped series.
Set on the diagonal, the lips running from the lower left to the upper right and cropped at both ends. The surrounding paper is given over to broad, loose washes that read as neither flesh nor ground.
Orange, rust and madder in the lower lip against violet and olive above, with cool grey-blues around the edges. Warmer and more broken than the other two in the series.
Layered transparent washes with hard edges where each has dried before the next went on, so the lip is built from overlapping shapes rather than modelled. Small flecks of reserved paper carry the highlights.
Watercolour on paper with gold leaf. Transparent throughout; the leaf along the upper lip is the only opaque passage, and it is torn rather than cut.
No signature visible within the painted area.