Within the first few months of us being married Phil was transferred by his company to Upington in the Northern Cape.  It was hot in the summer and we lived on the banks of the Orange River which had a very cooling effect on those stifling hot summer days.  What it also had was a rich clayish soil which was perfect for growing roses.  The garden of our home was a large one with 120 rose bushes of every colour imaginable in it.  It was glorious.  My first year of marriage, like most involved many adjustments, but most of all it involved learning to prune roses!

This blog is a long one, but explains my technical process for those interested.  Tackling painting a rose can be a little daunting, especially those ‘cabbagey’ types of roses that look almost like peonies.  They are such a fluffy mass of petals with very subtle shades of colour (not that anyone has ever accused me of subtle use of colour) you just don’t know where to start.

I have developed a few techniques that work for me when painting flowers, especially roses……  First, I prepare photographic copies of the main image.  In one, I used image processing software to blur the picture. Squinting at a subject is a great way to spot the main shapes and tones, but it gets tiring.  A blurred image allows me to do the same thing without getting a headache. Once I have the painting blocked in correctly, I find that details are either easier to paint or not necessary.

The second image is a grey scale version, which helps me see the tones I need to mix for different parts. Tones are a compass that guides the mixing of colours, because everything will be tied together by tonal relationships. If the tones are right, the painting looks unified.  I, when it comes to doing the actual painting rely heavily on this grey scale because very rarely in any painting do I ever use the colour I actually see.  Getting the tones right allows me this freedom so the end result works no matter what colour I have chosen to paint my flower.  Sometimes I may even create a third image where I saturate the colours, or put filters over them just to see the more extreme contrasts, but I always work with this one in conjunction with the grey scale version.

I try to use 4 basic colours and then play with a few extras and the interference colours which create a shimmer to the paint.   I usually use these paints when I want to exaggerate where the light falls.  To do this accurately I turn to the grey scale photograph.  It just creates a bit of drama to a small quick study.

Next, using the blurred image, I sketch the composition editing out the details and smaller shapes. Even with the blurred image, I squint so I can narrow the tones down to just a few.  It is important early on to catch the “thrust” (or “gesture”) of the roses.  For now, I treat them as cylinders, and only depict the largest dark “crevasses” to indicate where things are going.  I don’t dwell on the details.  Sometimes even rotating your photograph or canvas can help you find the balance.

Once the sketch is satisfactory, I paint the centre of interest. The strokes are bold…even a bit sloppy, but I use a smallish brush to retain control.  In this case I mixed Prussian Blue into my Quadricone Red or Coral for the dark tone and adjusted it by adding more Quadricone Red or Coral for the middle tones.  Then I started playing with the pinks.  I used very little white; instead I used a natural colour and a very soft Naples Yellow which gave a more apricot colour to the pinks.  When I did want to lighten an area I mixed the natural with the white so the contrast wasn’t too extreme.  This is the more crucial stage of painting the rose – initial differentiation of large masses with the correct colour notes.   I continued to cover the large masses with different flat colours. I keep squinting to keep me from getting lost in details. The objective is to create an illusion of shape which gives an impression of the rose.  I added some vibrant, lighter tones over the initial darker tones.  I mixed in some white, but I am always careful about adding white into any colour mixture, because I want to avoid any chalkiness or milkshake colours as my school art teacher used to call it.  Difficult though, and even more reason to be careful when you are painting a pink rose.

Once the flat tones and large masses are laid down, I start to mix tonal variations to create more depth. I compare the new tones with the previous ones to keep the all-important tonal balance. It is important to remember that the basic shape of a rose is cylindrical, and lighting will affect them accordingly. Using my smallest brush for added control, I paint on the highlights.  Technically roses have a velvet-like matte surface, so the highlight should be soft, not shiny, but this is where I use a little more artistic licence than I usually do and have fun with those interference paints.

The final stage of the painting is edge control. I want to make “soft” edges recede and to sharp edges come forward. Laying down blocks of colour with the bigger brush, as I did earlier, is likely to leave a lot of harsh edges. They may be either where two shapes connect or where planes meet within the same shape. I use a very small clean brush to soften the edges of the rose. Sometimes the centre of the rose is so tight it is difficult to define the petals so rather than paint individual petals and sharpen them I use ‘splodges’ of colour.   Soft and hard edges both have their place in achieving strong visual impact.