Coming up Roses

The roses at the Botanical Gardens are in full fabulous bloom and I've been wanting to go and spend some time with them and my watercolours all week. Today at last I went and found a lovely spot under a low hanging tree and happily splattered away. I must have blended well into the foliage, at least three wedding parties walked past and nobody seemed to spot me, even when I tried sketching one of the couples as they came down the steps in front of me.














I jotted down notes as I sketched:
'A wedding party nearby... a child laughing as if it's sides would split...
water splashing in fountains. Talking laughing getting louder
then just the fountains. Far away voices and thunder...
tiniest insects that bite like pinpricks... rose smells rose smells.'

Autumn leaves and roses(again)

I have been watching the trees turn and drop their leaves for weeks now on my (almost) daily walk, and thinking I must come back with sketchbook and paints to try and catch the jewel-like colours in the morning light. I didn't though, and there are now just a few left clinging to the nearly bare branches. So I gathered some outside our front door and piled them into my studio, and finally got to paint them yesterday. I have to have two watercolour paintings on the go at a time, as I can't stand waiting for the paint to dry on one, unless there's another to carry on with.
I thought I had painted the last autumn rose, but as the trees release their final golden offerings of the season, there is a whole new flush of buds and blossoms overlooking the icy swimming pool. I made a 'value' pencil sketch out there, and took a photo, and picked a rose to bring back to my studio on the other side of the house, and tried to paint the scene both freely and with an eye to composition, value, rythym etc.
I feel I am making progress! It was jolly hard work for much of the day and I was exhausted afterwards, (plus we had an unruly night with the cat tossing a rat around the kitchen, frightening the dog and keeping us all awake!) but I want to keep it up today before my thoughts on how to go about it are scattered again like those autumn leaves...

Roses are Red

I've been inspired to paint red roses again after reading Ronell's incredibly romantic story on African Tapestry last week - life has only just got back to it's usual rythym, so I've found a couple of hours. Red roses are hard to paint in watercolour, and keep them fresh and glowing. They look so paintable and inviting, then cause you all sorts of problems. The two above I did after a watercolour workshop, where we learned the glazing technique of layering wash over dry wash until you get the intensity you want (on the right), and very washy wet into wet on the left (on the background and wrapping paper). The layered one looks overworked, and the other rather underdone on the flowers - need to find a happy medium here! So I picked the last rather battered autumn red rose this morning - we've been plunged into cold, gusty-windy winter all of a sudden - and tried again, trying to stay loose, but I am out of practise... it happens so quickly!... so the first attempt was rather solid, top right, the second a bit better, though as I finished the sun came streaming in and backlit it so it looked quite exquisite and completely different. Glad to be painting again though, seems like an age since I did!

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is a beaded wire rose (I think it's a rose) for you. They are sold by craftsmen here on the side of the road in some of our suburbs around this time of year - my beloved gave this one to me last Valentine's Day - I drew it in my sketch journal but I got bored and irritated rendering all those beads, I won't be doing that again in a hurry - real roses are much more fun to paint!

Some of the local art-and-craftworks have improved so much over recent years. There are highly original minds at work, though if one person comes up with a great seller, it soon proliferates all over town. There is a life-size beaded warthog that I rather fancy, but where would one keep it?