“Dragons Soar”, by Colorado Artist, Donna L. Martin

Dragons Soar

This is the latest little painting I completed.  It's the time of the year I've been thinking about family, getting out in the warm sunshine, planting flowers, breathing in the fresh air.  I named it "Dragons Soar" because I have a little sign in my garden that says "In my garden, hearts soar and dragons fly." 

In thinking about the dragonfly and creating this piece, I found this interesting symbolism.  The dragonfly normally lives most of its life as a nymph or an immature. It flies only for a fraction of its life and usually not more than a few months. This adult dragonfly does it all in these few months and leaves nothing to be desired. This style of life symbolizes and exemplifies the virtue of living IN the moment and living life to the fullest. By living in the moment you are aware of who you are, where you are, what you are doing, what you want, what you don’t and are able to make informed choices on a moment-to-moment basis.

This ability lets you live your life without regrets like the great dragonfly.  This week, this day, are you living in the moment?

Here are some pictures of how this painting started out and went through the process.

This painting literally sat in my art studio for over a year, untouched.  I did NOT like how it was turning out and couldn't figure out what to do with it.  The sides and the bottom of it were painted bright red.  Really...who does that...FIRE ENGINE red!  I toned it down with some white.  The top background underneath the dragonfly is some really beautiful turquoise paper that I found and altered.

I continued doing more alterations to the paper behind the dragonfly.  I added some iridescent orange...man those iridescent paints are gorgeous!  Started adding some blue over the white paint at the bottom and sides to try to tie it all together.

Here I began to add more turquoise to the painting, again to try to tie it together, and because I LOVE turquoise.

And...TaDa...I think it is done!

This little painting is 8 X 8 X 1.5 found a home here in Colorado.  It was finished with a resin coating, which eliminates the need for framing.  If you have comments or comments, please contact me at:

saltlightwatercolors@yahoo.com. 

You can check out my other work at:

http://donnamartinfineart.com/