Thursday, December 17, 2009

Soft Roses


Soft Roses
Originally uploaded by linfrye
Daily Practice
Journal

The sun finally cleared the weeklong grey and rain .... and temps rose to almost 40F! I took advantage of this seemingly rare event and walked outdoors, getting my vitamin D from the sunshine instead of a tablet! I also ran some errands and spent a bit of time among the store's display of roses - pink, yellow, melon, red ... the scent was almost intoxicating!

I came home and pulled out an old 'loose watercolor' lesson from Wet Canvas... and painted these from memory using that 'swirling' approach.

I've been attempting different approaches to flower painting these last weeks - not very successful to be honest - but studying alternative methods to rendering some of their softness and ephemeral qualities that make flowers such an attractive subject. I tend to favor the expressive qualities I see in others' work...and yet, when I pick up a brush, the botanist in me seems to automatically take over and it's a petal-by-petal result. I'm hoping that with sufficient practice in other approaches to flowers that my own work will bear a bit of a change I'm longing for ... at least I'm hoping .... meantime, I'm enjoying the playtime ...

A few more errands and I think we'll be ready for my daughter's visit this weekend. We're celebrating an early Christmas with her family ... then another celebration next week with my son ...Makes me think of the 12 days of Christmas .....

Stay warm! We're expecting a bit of snow tomorrow .... woooo hoooo!

4 comments:

Lorraine said...

Ooh I love the swirly effect, softening the roses as if through a camera lens, only better! I really enjoy all your experiments. Glad you found some bright flowers in your day!
Hugs,
Lorraine

Joan said...

I like the soft touch of these. I laughed that the "botanical" in you keeps coming out. Maybe you just can't change what shouldn't be changed. lol

Hope you get your snow if that's what you want. I'll let you have it. It's too cold up here. I had to get bundled up to go out Christmas shopping today...I need some warm sunshine and palm trees. lol Enjoy your day!

Ivona Hrvatin said...

A delicate study. Very soft.

Don't know which style of colors in watercolor do you prefere, but have a look at the roses and other flowers (many step-by-step examples) of a wonderful painter Thierry de Marichalar (link to his page on my blog). I need some help from Babel Fish Translation when I read his lessons (they are in French), but he has magnificient work.

Ivona Hrvatin said...

PS: I ment "which style of FLOWERS in watercolors do you prefere..." ;)
Sorry, I'm ill...