National Rose Month: Day 19
Posted on June 19, 2021
Blue, white and pink . . . I love the combination of soft roses and a chinoiserie vase. Sometimes your brush strokes need to just suggest the pattern on the vase, keeping the pattern subtle not to overwhelm the main focal point. I painted this yesterday afternoon and here are a few progress shots.
I create a rough drawing of my composition using Cadmium Red. Next I like to lay in the background and remove parts of it with a paper towel soaked in Gamsol for a painterly effect. I tested the color of one of the petals to start my block-in.
My next step is to establish the lightest light and the darkest dark to help me judge the values. I then added some tones that I saw in the vase, keeping the detail and edges soft to create the pattern on the chinoiserie vase. I want the rose on the right to be the focal point so I create the hardest edges there.
Now I work on the rose on the left, keeping the edges softer, so it does not complete with the focal point. I tell my students, creating a focal point is a “Hey, look at me area” in your art, that you need to tell your story and direct the viewer where to look. If everything is important—then nothing is!
Roses and Chinoiserie
● Sold (6 x 6 inches, oil on panel
National Rose Month: Day 18
Posted on June 18, 2021
I love to visit the garden at Ben Lomond’s House in Manassas. The historic roses bloom along with peonies and climb a beautiful white trellis. It is a tranquil spot filled with history as the house was used by a field hospital by both the Union and the Confederate troops during the Civil War.
Garden Glimpse
(9 x 6 inches, oil on panel)
Framed painting: $350 plus shipping
Available for Sale through Paypal
National Rose Month: Day 17
Posted on June 17, 2021
“Blushing is the true color of virtue.” —Diogenes
Soft petals, some of these flowers seemed to blush with the warm tones I observed in the middle. The dark background provided polarity to the softness and color of these roses.
Blush
Framed painting: $450 plus Shipping
(10 x 8 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 16
Posted on June 16, 2021
“Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower and draws all good things towards you.”
—Maharishi Maheseh Yogi
Sometimes there is no need for a vase—just a simple, casual arrangement of roses on a table top.
Three Roses
● Sold (8 x 10 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 15
Posted on June 15, 2021
“Beauty is ever present like the light of sun – even in the most humble object, only it takes an artist’s vision to detect it, and an artist’s skill to reproduce it.”
—Emil Carlsen
Emil Carlsen is a favorite artist of mine to study. He was a still-life painter who first studied architecture in his homeland of Denmark and immigrated to the U.S. at age 19. Influenced by the master still-life painter Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Carlsen was a leading exponent of the Chardin revival in France.
I was inspired by his painting, The Golden Background, with a vertical composition of an Asian white and blue porcelain footed bowl with dark blue rim band, tall white ceramic vase with raised Asian decorative mark, blue ceramic ginger jar with white cherry blossom pattern on stand with black lid. The background helps to draw your eye to the blue ginger jar and has an airy antique quality to it.
Here is my interpretation of a golden background with my blue and white willow ware jar and some roses strewn on the tabletop.
The Golden Background
● Sold (14 x 11 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 14
Posted on June 14, 2021
This little sketch was an alla prima painting of a trio of pink roses. Pink roses symbolize gratitude, grace, and joy. These blush roses have a delicate quality and softness compared to the showy bright red rose.
In the Pink
● Sold (6 x 6 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 13
Posted on June 13, 2021
Henri Fantin-Latour’s rose paintings are exquisite! I don’t think anyone can come close to his virtuosic manipulation of paint to create such delicate forms. He applied thick impasto not only with brushes, but also manipulated the paint with the butt of the brush and also used scrapers.
Roses Jaunes Dans Un Vase (Yellow Roses in a vase), 1891 by Henri Fantin-Latour shown above, inspired me to paint this beautiful cascade of creamy white roses.
Cascade
● Sold (16 x 12 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 12
Posted on June 11, 2021
“Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an invitation to savor life and to dream of the future.
Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.
May you be guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom the Church in these days contemplates with joy.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always: she is the “tota pulchra” portrayed by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates among the splendors of Paradise as “beauty that was joy in the eyes of all the other saints”. —from Letter of His Holiness, Pop John Paul II, 1999
Sometimes creating a painting can be a meditation or a prayer. I painted this single white rose during Lent and it reminds me of how imperfect I am. It is a contemplative painting and the white rose symbolizes Mary, and her infinite Grace.
Mary Meditation
● Sold (7 x 5 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 11
Posted on June 11, 2021
Fresh flowers and a small butterfly represent how fleeting and special life is and how faith in God will help us through any changes and difficulties we encounter.
“It is difficult to know why God reveals himself to some and plays a game of hide and seek to others.” —Baba Ramdas
After my Father passed away, I saw so many butterflies and they seemed to hover around me. I felt a connection with my Dad every time I was in the garden and these beautiful insects would flutter near me and seemingly watch over me. The orange butterfly signifies love and the message that there is life after death just like the transformation of the butterfly.
Hide and Seek
Collection of the Artist
(10 x 8 inches, oil on panel)
National Rose Month: Day 10
Posted on June 10, 2021
One of the joys of gardening is bringing the fruits of your labor inside to enjoy! Arranging flowers in a vase is an art in itself. I love how the blue sky and sun reflected on the table and the back lighting on the roses made the stems and thorns seem almost more important than the blooms.
Tabletop Roses
Framed painting: $695 plus shipping
(14 x 11 inches, oil on panel)
