"Culmination" - Triptych painting by Niki Gulley

"Culmination" ©2011 Niki Gulley

Three 48" x 30" canvases to form a 48" x 90" triptych

textured mixed media on wrap around canvas

I decided it would be a fun challenge to create an extremely large painting, and I wanted the final piece to be very uplifting, colorful and full of energy. Opting for warm colors and working with extremely thick oil paint and palette knives, I chose this water lily pond reference from our visit to my Monet's Gardens in Giverny, France. The grounds were breathtaking and I could actually see his paintings come to life. I was drawn to the energetic flow and yet calming serenity in this view, and I positioned the water lilies and my paint strokes in a circular pattern to add to that mood. The morning light peeking through the distant foliage added to a sense of mystery and promise that I wanted to capture in paint and share with you that feeling of hope.

I'll have this contemporary landscape painting in addition to more of my large scale oil paintings at the Cottonwood Art Festival, CottonwoodArtFestival.com, next weekend, Oct. 1st & 2nd from 9am - 6pm in Richardson, TX. Please stop by my booth to see them in person.

Or, if you would like to join us in May for our next ArtTrek to Paris, France, and paint Monet's Gardens in person, visit nikigulley.com/?page_id=1420, which goes into detail about our upcoming Plein Air Painting & Photography Workshops.

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E-mail me at Niki@NikiGulley.com for more information.

Visit my website at NikiGulley.com.