National Poinsettia Day

I purchased a Poinsettia recently in order to paint it in watercolor.  I decided to give it as a gift so that meant I had to paint it right away.  Deadlines can be a good thing!

I decided to try a more painterly approach.  Here is my first layer of watercolor over my sketch of black micro pen:

I decided to do a little research about this plant on Wikipedia.  I was surprised to discover that December 12 is National Poinsettia Day in the United States.  I had no idea!  😉

I added a second layer of paint:

According to Wikipedia, “The colored bracts—which are most often flaming red but can be orange, pale green, cream, pink, white, or marbled—are often mistaken for flower petals because of their groupings and colors, but are actually leaves. The colors of the bracts are created through photoperiodism, meaning that they require darkness (12 hours at a time for at least five days in a row) to change color. At the same time, the plants require abundant light during the day for the brightest color.”

So I added more color to the “leaves” and a few splatters to give it a little sparkle – after all it is on display around Christmas time.

I also learned that this plant is native to Mexico and was derives its common English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett,^[3] the first United States Minister to Mexico,^[4] who introduced the plant into the United States in 1825.

I hope you enjoyed this little history lesson as much as I did!  I’m not sure my Poinsettia watercolor is complete but my friend enjoyed receiving the plant as a gift as much as I enjoyed painting it!

Cheers to you!  🙂