Georgia Blossom

I almost called this "Lucky Blossom" because under several layers there are koi fish swimming around.  But I figured only a few people would get the joke and I didn't want to air my dirty laundry to the whole world, just you guys dear readers know the actual truth.  So instead I went with Georgia Blossom as we get magnolias blooming both in Spring and Fall here in Georgia.  They are such beautiful flowers.  Another one I think I could paint again and again and not get tired of them.  Love that white really isn't white with this flower.
 
I had done a magnolia before in color pencil in a 12"x12" size, but altered this one a bit (not using grays for the shadows, but violet and blues) and did it on a 6"x6" boxed canvas.  Again working on getting the sides to participate as part of the composition. 

I did a couple of things here: 
1) I covered the koi with several coats of gesso and realize that gesso doesn't allow the paint to soak into the canvas.  So the initial layers of the dark background were kind of transparent, so to cover it I got darker than I might have wanted, but I still do like the pop.  I was reading about mat medium and am going to try to get some to work with, as they say it makes transparent color opaque, but doesn't alter the color much.  There are many mediums that can be used with acrylic, Golden is one provider, and I need to check them out as indications are they can give you all kinds of looks.
2)  The other thing is that for most of the white work I used gesso because it is soupier and allowed for the slide effect when blending.  It allowed me to add layers after one was already dry and retain some of the color by scumbling from an earlier layer.  It gave me that soft streaky lok of color blending into color on the petals. 
3)  One thing too you can rework acrylic, I tend to do overworking and tried hard to not overdo to try to keep the colors soft and clean.

I am letting this one rest and then I will tweak if I feel like it, but probably going to try to keep my hands off of it.  I have decided to varnish both this and the Poppy Twins that I am putting in the show in November.  After reading many varying opinions, contrary to my belief, acrylic isn't indestructible if left unframed, it does have the potential to dent, especially in high warm humidity weather or areas of the country. (In Georgia we have a lot of both)   I have a Liquitex matte varnish that I am going to put on.  However I want to be sure it is as dry as it can be before adding the varnish on the top.  Then the next trick is to get the varnish on without it bubbling or major brush strokes - ah, another new adventure. 
Also I am going to sign these on the left bottom side and add the title, size and medium used in the back on the stretcher.
Thanks for stopping by and hope you are having a great weekend.