Magnolia Velatura
Jean Ellis Newman

While leisurely browsing through a bookstore in Healdsburg with travel buddy Barbara, I discovered a marvelous volume of Color for Painters by Al Gury. This interesting "guide to traditions and practice" introduced me to the term velatura…a milky, translucent layer of color that allows a hint of the under layers to show through.

Gury's two-paragraph description inspired me to rework a disappointing watercolor of a highly stylized magnolia. In the original, the blossom had only four petals in varying mixtures of yellow-orange and blue-green; the background was a dark, dull red-violet. The colors seemed harmonious, but the high-voltage contrast jangled my nerves.

The velatura technique helped me transform the painting into a high key, low-contrast rendering that now soothes my senses.