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Soft Summer Roses

Soft Summer Roses (Watercolour)
Soft Summer Roses (Watercolour)

Our small front garden has three rose bushes, all of which were here when we moved in… I wasn’t really a big lover of roses, but I’ve become quite attached to them over the past two and a half years. They’re all quite different – there’s a deep red, long stemmed single bloom variety with an amazingly sweet perfume (almost sickly sweet), a mutli-bloom candy striped pink and white one, and a small under-developed bush that only manages one or maybe two blooms a year… but when they appear they are so beautiful!

This rose bush has just delivered it’s first blossom of the season, possibly the only one we’ll see, and it’s the most perfect full rose of soft yellow with a delicate tinge of pink at the tip of some of the outer petals. It’s enticed me to try a loose rose painting, my first of the year, with no pencil outline to guide me. I admit, I studied a few online videos first to gain some ideas for technique – I have previously tried Jean Haines tutorials and today I found another artist, Trevor Waugh, who’s demonstrations are stunning.

My effort is a combination of both techniques, I think, with my own freehand interpretations… I’m really pleased with the start I’ve made, although I got caught out by the speed the washes dried so there are a few hard edges in the background that need addressing later. You’ll maybe have noticed that I left a space for another flower? That’s a bit of artistic license as it only ever grows one at a time, but I thought it might make for a better composition.