More roses

A couple of weekends ago I was at my parents’ house and my mom’s roses were in bloom. I asked if I could cut some to take home and paint. As you know if you’ve followed my flower paintings, I’ve been trying to get petals and coloration right, especially on the really dense blooms like roses, ranunculus, or camellias.

There was this attempt, almost two months ago:

Then, a month later, came this:

And this is what I did with my mom’s roses, this time:

I painted this over two days, starting with the one on the right. I had intended for it to come out more abstract, with lots of space between the individual petal shapes, as if the petals were exploding outward. But as I made my pencil drawing, I couldn’t help but stay somewhat close to the real flower.

For the next two blooms, I decided to just go with realism, to the extent that I was capable. Overall the three roses took me about two and a quarter hours.

Partway through this painting I realized Mother’s Day was coming up. I thought about giving the painting to my mother, but I don’t really like the composition, so I made her a new card on a much more compact piece of paper. As I made the pencil drawing I realized I was really, really tired of drawing/painting roses. So instead of trying to match the color of the actual rose, I just selected red/orange/yellow hues from my palette and applied them randomly. It is a strange effect.

I’ve put all my flower/plant paintings into a flickr album, so it’s easier to see progress from the first painting (back in February) to the most recent. Check it out!