When in Vegas, I never miss a chance to visit the Bellagio resort, as I can always count on a feast for the eyes. This floral arrangement caught me eye, and has been a great source for creating color palettes:
Orchid arrangement at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas.
Purple and orange seem like unlikely friends at first. Many years ago, my husband and I purchased a new condo, so we had the pleasure of picking all the colors of the walls, floors and surfaces. To my great surprise, he fell in love with a purple counter top. Always one for a little whimsy, I immediately consented. Once I saw it in the finished kitchen, I struggled with it. We had light-stained oak cabinets, so I saw orange and purple as the dominant colors in the kitchen. I even made a small quilt to explore the color combination.
That quilt taught me that orange and purple are good friends if you find red tones to get them all on the same page. The floral arrangement at the Bellagio pulled off the same trick, but used green instead of red. I first tried applying the colors to a black and white drawing:
Several weeks later, I used the same palette to draw this wreath:
