Bowl of white roses

Painting white subject matter, in this case white roses, can be challenging. Which colours are the best to mix white and how to depict a flower with white petals? How to paint the colour white in acrylic medium? You can use cool colours to describe the shadows; or warm colours. Usually a nice purple mix is a good shadow colour. A mix of a blue and a red always works well. Using only these two colours create a warm shadow colour by adding more red, or a cool shadow colour by adding more blue.

But what if we add some yellow or some orange or maybe a green colour to the shadows as I did in this painting… When we paint white subjects we only paint the shadows and the darker areas in the subject or the reflections from other surrounding subjects. I used blue and made some alizarin crimson (mixing a red and blue) and I also used some yellow on the petals, grey, burnt sienna and a slightly green caramel colour. The white roses are a combination of cool and warm shades depending on where the shadows and reflected light fell. Most white flowers such as these roses will require both a little warmth, tempered with a colder, fresher colour. Strong greens created depth and were a good contrast to the alizarin crimson I had mixed into the creamy white.

Splatter brush and silicone brushes

The painting was done exclusively with silicone shapers and palette knives with thick artists quality heavy body paint. The background was done with a broad silicone brush/blade creating a thin layer of paint. This same technique was used to create the vase. The chinoiserie design on the vase was applied with a silicone shaper. The difference in background to the rich heavily textured buttery roses slathered on with different shaped palette knives create an interesting contrast within the painting. The splattering of creamy paint (done with a splatter brush) on the background help contribute to the feel of loosely arranged roses, and add interest to the flat background. Leaves were created with a flat angular palette knife.