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Well I have not published an article for awhile, (just put my site up again), so thought I would take you through this painting.

I think I am in a red phase.  Do not know exactly what puts one in those spots, maybe it is thinking about Christmas coming!  ha,ha.

just finished a watercolor of nutcrackers, (red painting) so I guess that was it.......

I have started an Amaryllis painting that I have been thinking about for a couple of years.  I have a cluster in my front flower bed that are so beautiful each year.   What I like about then is the bell shape and how they grow radiating from one stem.  if you take a photo from one angle you can get the shape of the flower at all angles.  Here is the photo I have worked from.  I have cropped the lower right hand side of this and still have about three more paintings I can do just from this one reference.

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This is my second fire, (forgot to take photo of the first).  These are all reds that hold on a hot fire.

If you are a oil on porcelain painter, working with over glaze oil paints, you know that some reds do not hold on a hot firing, they just fire out.

The first fire, I set all my flowers and stem in.   Then after firing noticed the lovely shadows on the flowers that were formed from the strong light.  After searching for the correct color for those, I decided that I could see a gold pink  and some blue, among the others.  Choosing the pink would be a nice contrast of the cool reds against the warms.  I wanted the background to be very dark as in the photo,( it makes the strong lights show up more), so I did put the back ground color on the second fire.   I did start painting the center bud on this before I took the photo, so it is worked on already for the third fire.
 I took this at a slant because of the glare on the tile....

This is after the third firing.  You notice that the depth is in there but the bright orange from the light hitting the flower is not  there yet. All my firings have gone to about 1400-1500 degrees.   I am test firing some of the bright oranges-reds (more intense colors) since most of them are cooler fired .   So my last fire will be a little over 1200 degrees.  I am hoping that this turns out!   I have planned but you never know what "might" happen.  I have added a few other colors to the white shadows, because I did see some other colors from my reference. 

Then I have decided that I wanted a pattern in the background, just for a change...I have added some pen work (small circles).

One more firing.