Peach Rose oil painting - Day 22, 30 days hath September challenge

Peach Rose

Oil palette knife painting

15x15cm (6"x6") on gessoed panel

Day 22, 30 days hath September challenge

 I had a fancy to paint roses today, so chose a small piece of prepared MDF with a pink ground. This is my first palette knife rose and is a study for a larger piece. In the last rose I painted I uses a gentle blending technique and I'm finding that I have to stop myself blending too much as I still want the impasto look.
Contact me about this or any other painting HERE

Summer Bonanza Oil painting

This is another one of my loosening up exercises, this time base on one of Richard Schmid's work.

Summer Bonanza after Richard Schmid by Marion Hedger
Oil on canvas
41x33cm (16x13")

I started with an acrylic wash in pale blue. Then using a 1" wash brush, I brushed in some loose, random stipes using red oxide diluted with odourless mineral spirits, followed by a few loose brushstrokes of green. With a very small brush I then indicated the position of the main flowers and then went straight to using thicker paint. I tend to work all over the canvas, mixing my colours as I go and also on the canvas. The final stage was the highlights on the rose to make it pop. This was painted alla prima apart from the intial acrylic wash.

My next step is to use my own photos as the basis and see if I can keep the momentum going without getting too tight.

Rose Trio oil painting by Marion Hedger

I am on a quest to loosen up my floral oil paintings I have been scouring the internet for modern day artists that have the 'knack'. I have been studying their work and practicing my technique.


My work has gradually become looser as a natural progression, especially since I have been using oils - did I say that I love oils? - but I want to achieve that looseness that looks effortless (Haha!). I have long admired the artist Dreama Tolle Perry so decided to base this one on one of her wonderful rose paintings. This is the result

ROSE TRIO by Marion Hedger
Oil on canvas panel
41x33cm (16x13")

This is mostly alla prima, and I really enjoy this style. Initially it is quite frustrating as I wonder if I have it right and will the paint behave, but then all of a sudden it happens. I still use an underpainting of sorts and gradually build up until I find I have enough paint that it 'flows'. I am hoping that my technique will improve so that I can achieve the same result but more directly.

I'd be interested in what you think of this style.

Pink Rose

Pink Rose

Acrylic painting
40x40cm on box canvas
 

I painted this rose as part of a monthly challenge on wetcanvas.

The challenge was to paint a rose macro in a colour you found difficult. I always find pinks difficult as they can come out either too sugary, too blue or too red.

The reference is from a rose in my garden. The area where I live, used to be very well known for growing roses for the perfume industry in Grasse. This rose was planted by the previous owners of my property.

Stage 1, Underpainting.

The rose was drawn onto the canvas using watercolour pencil. I then blocked in the darks using cool colours e.g. purple, blues, blue greens and greens, and the lights using warm colors oranges, reds and yellows. I used yellow for where I wanted the lightest highlights.

Stage 2

Paint was added to each area to make the colour look more 'real' I used alazarin crimson for the shadows and permanent rose for the lighter areas, mixed with white to a lesser or greater extent. I used titanium white and some mixing white.

The mixing white makes the colour more transparent, but titanium white gives a better colour, although it is quite opaque. I also mixed the alazarin crimson with ultramarine blue in places.

The paint was added dry, with a scumbling motion. Several layers were used to help get the correct tone.

Stage 3

More pink - permanent rose plus white was added to the light areas. A red layer was also added to the darker areas to give a warmer shadow and then overpainted with alazarin crimson.

To get to stage 4 (the finished piece) I scrumbled a layer of permanent rose all over, before putting on the last coats of pink. The permanent rose layer helped to lessen the 'chalky' look of some of the pink. I also used much thicker paint on the light petals.

Lastly, I used a lot of white in the highlights to give a very light pink and increase the contrast at the focal point.