Nothing Rhymes With Orange

This painting was created for an art show of the same title. I came up with the poem first (below), and then created the art from there. I love how this came out, like a cross between a still life and pop art, but with my usual collage twist! The orange oranges are painted on circles cut out from the same paper as the orange backgrounds, and all the blue is painted directly on the watercolor paper. I used a page from a book of poetry for one orange and an old diary page for the other. If you look closely you can see the text/writing and the natural edges of the pages on the painting. I enjoyed this project from start to finish!
 
9.75 x 9.75" (12 x 12" framed)
Watercolor, acrylic, and found paper on hot press watercolor paper
 
Nothing Rhymes With Orange
Round, dimpled, sweet or sour,
A color bright, brimming with power.
From the young to the old, it’s been a long love affair,
But nothing rhymes with orange.
 
If perhaps it could embrace its color complement,
Verse after verse would fill the page, bold and confident.
Instead we are left with nowhere to go, stuck time and time again.
Because, the fact of the matter is, nothing rhymes with orange.
 
Maybe we’ll try it on for size, and buy a bag of blues,
A Naval blue, a Blood blue, a Valencia Blue, too.
And suddenly a world has opened full of a different hue,
Poems will be finished with true satisfaction because so much rhymes with blue.
 
It seems, however, it’s hard to swallow something so strange and new,
Those juicy morsels don’t slide down the same when oranges are blue.
Maybe we can embrace the strain of a color a little offbeat,
And accept the truth that, while delicious and dazzling, nothing rhymes with orange.