Portland Roses, 16″ x 20″, UART 320 board

Underpainting, stage 1

And here is the third painting, perhaps the most challenging in some ways.  My original thought was to change the color of the building, which was an orange-red brick to either a dull light green or an off white with red brick showing through. I was afraid that the roses wouldn’t stand out against the red brick.  I did several color studies and chose some reddish off-whites.  Then proceeded with the underpainting with this in mind. But then I really liked the look of it–the warmth of the orange wals–and decided to stick closer to the picture, which meant pretty much putting the same color over the underpainting.  However, I used a cooler pinkish red, rather than the real orange.  It actually worked fine. (I seem to have forgotten to photograph the final underpainting.)

I used my Terry Ludwig “vibrants” set for the colors in the building and Girault and Blue Earth for the foliage and roses.  I really enjoyed doing the window shades, which had subtle creases in them. Used Girault blues and a cream of close values and it worked pretty nicely.

In the photo, the foreground is a driveway with the end of a car at the far right.  I intended to put in the driveway but not the car.  The driveway was also light-speckled from the tree above. And the color was a blueish violet which didn’t go with anything else in the picture. So I tried to do it with a combination of red and greens (as I used in the shadowed areas of the building).  It looked dreadful and was a complete distraction.  My husband suggested grass–why didn’t I think of that!  I brushed it off, added some orange NuPastel and alcohol, then various greens, getting darker on the right with a hint of shadows from the leaves above.  SO much better.  With all the business of the rose bushes, a simple foreground that complements the building works much better.

This might be it for rose pictures for now.  But it’s been fun!

Cape Cottage with Roses, 16″ x 20″, UART 320 board

Drawing with 2B graphite

Underpainting, stage 1

Underpainting with alcohol

My second painting is a full size version of a scene that I first painted a week ago as a 4″ x 5″ miniature.  This is also from Sandwich, this house being in the older area of  the town, which I particularly like. I removed a car and large travel van from the left side that might have given it a more funky look!  But, hey–I’m going for roses!

There were a lot of problems with this one.  To begin with, the house. With leaves of the trees blocking much of it, I didn’t realize for some time that what was on the far left was actually a roof that came out from the door, and not the left side of the house.  As you can see from the underpainting, I had it much further to the left and it just didn’t read right at all!  The change made a huge difference (it was my husband who spotted it!).  The shadows are also rather odd.  The light is obviously coming from the left, hitting the left side of the house and the white fence.  The shadows must be coming from the tree branches over head.  I followed the photo here as I’m not about to question the science of it all!

I also had problems with the right side of the house, which I believe is weather-beaten shingle, unpainted.  I meant to add a few lines in there and I will before i frame it.  There was only one window, I added the one on the right to minimize the area of house, whose color I couldn’t figure out what to to with!  It’s a combination of brown and violet and I think fairly innocuous.

The roses here are quite small and harder to see.  Again, I used my pinks, but added small pieces of a pinkish orange Schmincke to some of them and that really made them pop.

The road was the last challenge.  I completely used up a violet Girault on this!  Then I added some pinkish color over it and a little greener blue, then the shadows of the telephone wires and the tree shadows.  There seems to be enough interest in it now and I’m quite happy with it.

What I love best about this one is the opening in the fence that invites us into the garden and the shadows of the rose bush on the fence.

A note: I began another painting prior to this one. It was a picture of a stone wall with roses and a large house from Marion, MA.  For the June Roses painting I had used odorless mineral spirits for the underpainting and loved it.  It was like painting.  I ran out and decided to use turpenoid. BIG mistake. It didn’t dry and then, when it finally did, it left the surface very pock-marked. I started the painting but hated every minute of it and decided I really didn’t want to paint Marion afterall!  So, don’t use turpenoid as a solvent!  For this painting, I went back to my trusty alcohol, and it was just fine.

June Roses (Cape Cod), 20″ x 16″, UART 320 board

Underpainting, stage 1

Drawing with 2B graphite

I’ve been having problems with my blog interface and have finished three paintings without being able to share them.  Fortunately, I was able to reinstall the old format, so now I’m ready to roll!

I have been doing paintings of roses.  Some larger, some smaller.  This first painting has the largest rose bush in it and is unquestionably my favorite. The picture is from Sandwich on Cape Cod.  I loved the house to begin with, and then there was this beautiful bush of pink roses in the foreground spilling over and under a lovely fence.  A new subject for me!  

While I did a drawing half scale, I had a terrible time getting it right on the board. The house was way too big and the fence just wasn’t right.  So I worked and worked, and finally got it.  I’ve learned to work until you are happy with the drawing, before beginning the underpainting! Speaking of which, it’s kind of wild!  A lot of orange and brown and blue.  But it worked. I got a nice dark for the violets that would go over the house.  And I got the composition the way I wanted it.

For the house, I used a blue violet Girault that was fairly bright. So I added the dark grayed red violet into it. That really helped tone it down, while retaining enough of the color.  The biggest challenge was the right side of the house in sunlight.  It’s always a trick to get a dark cool color to look like it’s in sunlight!  There must be some yellow. So I began with a light cool green, then added some light but brighter red violet (soft) into it.  It was perfect!  Kind of like magic!  (I keep looking at the house and I don’t think the lines are straight, but I’m going to leave it.)

The large bush in front of the house was a perfectly rounded bush (just one). I made it more irregular and by adding light on the right side in two places, I came up with two of them!  One seems to be right in front of the house and the larger one is  by the fence. Much more interesting and it just sort of happened!  

I’m very happy with the fence.  I used blue grays, grays, browns and it worked nicely.  I simplified the foreground post and was really happy with it.

Then came the roses.  I’ve never tried to do them before.  For the underpainting, as you can see, I decided to block out the overall shape with green–no odd color that would make it more difficult.  I used various pinks from my quinacridone red Blue Earth set and some warmer orangey pinks and yellow white.  I loved that some were in shadow under the fence, making them much more interesting.  It took patience and I had to keep stopping and coming back to it.

After getting the roses done, I realized that I needed to tone down the kousa dogwood blossoms by the house.  I did this by smudging them a bit and adding a slighter darker color over some of them.  It went back and had a lot less priminence and I was happy.

This is one of the happiest paintings I’ve ever done.  I took the picture on a beautifully perfect June day. And later that day I had dinner with my sister Marcia, who I hadn’t seen in three years!  So it was very special.  Unfortunately, my other rose pictures aren’t quite like this one, but I’ll definitely look for more like this in the future.