In the Bleak Almost Winter...Roses!!

Painting inspiration of the day...

Tea Roses (1), oil

When I was seriously burned out last year, I found that I ended up wanting to paint 'something' - anything - as long as it wasn't too large and complicated. What touched my inspiration the most were flowers - most particularly roses, my birth flower. Again, painting small kept an intimate connection to the models and the painting itself. This small work is painted wet-in-wet in oil, on size 6x8" canvas panel.

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Brandy Tea Roses (4x5"), oil

Tiny Brandy Tea Roses (1 6/8x2"), oil

I never throw away off-cuts of canvas board and canvas. There always seems to be odd sized small frames lying about the place, and you never know when an off-cut might fit one. So, that's how the really teeny paintings come about.

When I've been working on a painting, and there seems to be an abundance of paint still left on the palette, I will pull out some small canvas boards and make some instant backgrounds for future paintings. I swirl the wet paint around on a canvas until the colour variations appeal to me, then I whisk the surface quickly with a big soft fluffy blending brush to smooth the sharp edges. When these dry, I have a painting 'already started' in any one of them. A mid-value that I can use to bounce new images off, or pull from the patterns in the base painted background.

Why roses? Because I love them in all their myriad forms and colours. And because of the rose's legacy in history, mythology and symbolism. It is perfect in every way...a symbol of purity and unity.

Cheers,

Marianne