There’s something about roses that appeals to me when painting and I’m exploring different brush heads to see what style feels more natural to me. They may be realistic or completely interpretive. With harsh strokes or soft touches. With well-defined petals or abstract marks…there are so many ways to paint them. But at the end of the day, a rose is a rose is a rose.
As I’m setting up my craft room, I’m finding long-forgotten supplies. These Winsor and Newton paints are at least 15 years old, if not more. Most of them had dried up and had solidified inside the tube but I did find some that still work.
I also absolutely loved using my newly-acquired moon palette from Sarah Diane, an amazing ceramic artist. I don’t know how to explain it, but there’s something about using this palette that makes me want to paint more…mix the paints, lose myself in creating new colors, adding copious amounts of paper to get just the right blends. And I guess, that’s the secret of painting better…practising more!
Here is the process video for this painting. It’s basically the same process I used to paint the blue rose, which I shared a couple of weeks ago. Started out with a bunch of flowers filling up the whole page and then accentuating one flower. I loved using a size 6 round brush for this painting…and I’ll be exploring it more to see what other shapes I can create with it.
You’ll see that I used a lot of water and in places where the paint became too intense I used a thirsty brush to pick up excess color (the areas that appear white), giving the flower some highlights. It also added some depth and movement to my interpretive rose.
What do you think of this painting? Do you like all the hidden layers? Also, any feedback on the videos? Is there anything I could improve or do more of? Let me know in the comments.