Behind the scenes: "Rain smell"

Close up of "Rain Smell" - 18x24" painting on watercolor paper

After I quit my core "9-5" job about 5 months ago, I resumed my passion for painting as a means to stay productive. I'll also put it out there that painting was my way to cope with numerous rejections during my job search.

I've spent my free time traveling abroad these past few months. Some places I've gone are England, South Africa, Mauritius, and Hawaii, absorbing really different atmospheres and cultures. In all of my travel destinations, I always make a point to sit with nature, whether that be a small botanical garden, a major hike, waterfall, someone's back yard, whatever. I take when I can get, because nature keeps my mind focused and still. And while traveling, painting flowers and landscapes are a simple way to practice because they're everywhere.. Even if there is just a single flower budding out of a sidewalk, I'm inspired!

I appreciate their stillness, diversity, delicacy, functional anatomy, geometric shapes and symmetry, and roles in our ecosystem. I appreciate their restorative properties in medicine, their place in folk culture, and their universal presence.
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This is a glimpse of my most recent piece called "Rain Smell". The inspiration for this piece comes from the lovely Ali'i Kula Lavender Farms in  Maui, Hawaii - USA. The farm is at the base out of Mt. Haleakala, a 10,000 foot mountain covered by cloud. In a few words, the day was sweet, herbal, gray and dewy.

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The feeling of being there that day can be likened to a lazy and rainy Sunday. Do you like bubble baths? So think of when you have a day off work and just want to stay inside your home all day. Maybe you have free time to pamper yourself with a nice fizzy bubble bath. And afterward, you slip into your favorite sweat pants and blanket. The farm was kind of like looking out your window at the end of that Sunday, seeing a cloudy and gray sky, and still feeling totally rejuvenated and happy inside.

For my palette,  I wanted to capture that warm feeling and juxtapose it with subdued, dark colors. I used big brush, drippy, cloud-like, running water technique to depict the dew drops on the leaves. And finally, below here is one of my favorite arrangements at AKL farms, and the visual inspiration for the succulents and little white flowers in "Rain Smell".

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Thank you for reading, friends! Shine on!

​-Sierra

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