After the past few hectic days it was lovely to just paint quietly for an hour this afternoon before it got dark. Whenever I’m stuck for ideas I find myself drawn back to roses as a subject and this one has all the colours of the sunsets we’ve been having lately.
In contrast to recent paintings I wanted to try to capture the softness of the colours without being too tight and methodical about the process. So I began without a drawing by letting background and petal colours drift together, wet into wet. I let them dry before starting to ‘find’ petal edges with more of the purple mix (pthalo blue and permanent rose). Next I’ll try and define some internal edges and add some shadows which I hope will bring it all together.
This style of negative painting is something I’ve had huge problems trying to master previously and it hasn’t been plain sailing today either, however I think it’s an improvement. I did fiddle a bit too much and wish I’d manage to leave more soft, lost edges, but mostly I’m quite happy with my progress.