Hand-Painting the Silk Butterfly Wing

Newly added to the Naked Eye Studios Youtube Channel is a fast-motion video of John painting the large butterfly wing that is is a key feature of his 2012 silk and mixed-media sculpture, The Reach. The piece was funded in part by a 2012 Artist Development Grant from the United Arts of Central Florida.

Watercolor artists will recognize the "bloom" effect, where water and color pushes away water and color previously added to fill the space with something resembling a floral bloom. John used this technique extensively to create dynamic, freeform dark areas that represent the structure of the colorful wing.

A hard-edged approach to this would not have had the same energy and feeling of lightness, so the random blooms did the trick.