Clematis - work in progress

January has not been very productive in the art room, but I have started to plan a painting.  A spare section of one of my painted background papers has been modified with further colour washes and I am hoping to use it for another floral subject.

The paper is tall and narrow (about 4.5" x 13") so I thought a climbing plant would be perfect.  I have sketched some clematis flowers using my own photos and previous drawings; the next step is to arrange them to fit the format of my paper and decide how to make the flowers stand out from the busy background.

Detail of the background paper
Inks, gesso stamped pattern, gold acrylic spatter

Pencil studies