Two steps forward, one step back... with white.

I know I've been quiet, but I have been busy.

Here's what I've been up to:

• Painting furiously with white - specifically white roses. That's what this post is about.

• Investigating ways to re-use old painting panels (paintings that didn't work out or that I have progressed from). I'll leave the details of this for another post.

A neighbour asked me if I would paint a white rose for her. I was happy to oblige since white is something I really want to get to grips with. I figured I'd paint a bunch, let her choose the one she liked and sell the rest or use them for reference.

I initially painted maybe 7 roses, all on small panels. Some of them didn't work. Here are some of the more successful ones:

By the time I finished the last one I'd been looking at paintings of white roses by other artists - some good but a lot of them bad - white is HARD to do! The difficulty is, what color do you make the shadows while keeping the flower still looking white - and the answer I can tell you is not grey! - you just end up with a rose that looks like mud and not looking like a flower at all. White reflects many colours and the shadows can end up very dark - but how dark do you go?

This morning it dawned on me that I have an IKEA canvas with a photo of a white rose on it.
I decided to copy part of it on paper and make notes about the colors I had mixed directly on the drawing.

I made a very loose sketch with burnt umber on a pad of oil paper (made by Arches) and proceeded to fill it it.
My intention had been to just paint part of it and make notes on the paper as I went.
BUT it was going so well, I just ended up painting in the whole thing!

I shocked even myself how close I got the colors and how good the painting was!



Now here's the part where I get to 'two steps forward, one step back'...

For this painting I had read somewhere that zinc white is semi transparent and good for mixing. I had a little tube of zinc white and decided to give it a go. It mixed so much better than my standard Titanium white!
I put the success of this painting down to:
1. Painting with zinc white
2. Painting large and with a big brush
3. The simplicity of the shapes
4. Using a large reference photo to really be able to focus on and narrow down the values and colors.


So then just as I was about to order a large tube of zinc white, I did a little further research...
Zinc white apparently dries extremely brittle - so brittle that if you paint with it on canvas, the paint can crack like glass once dried. So you cannot use it on canvas basically (it's better on board or wood but still not entirely reliable) . Since I do intend doing some larger paintings on canvas, there seems no point pursuing any further use of painting where the predominant base color is based on zinc.

So then I spent the rest of the day researching other whites to see what I could use as a good alternative. I also wrote to Gamblin who have been helpful in the past.

I have ordered some other alternative whites to see if I can achieve the same success with those.

Pale Yellow Aglow

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 12

Flowers are always tricker than you think they are going to be and take twice as long to paint.

Here's a progress shot. You can see at this stage I have started putting in the yellow and the basic shape is there. I used a fair bit of purple for the shadows on the right of the flower.
At this stage I realised that although the petals are pale, they were too white, so added just a touch of a creamy yellow and went in with a smaller brush to add some definition to the center of the flower.

 

(6 x 6 inches)
15 x 15cm approx
Oil on Gessobord 

Rosy-Row

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 11

Similar composition to yesterday but with three different varieties of rose of varying sizes.
Even though I was trying to keep things loose, the white rose took me at least three attempts. The white has just a hint of yellow. I tried three different pigments before I got a flower that still looked white, not yellow.
I'd like to try a bigger version of this composition at some point.

I guess this challenge really has become about painting flowers.
So difficult to do a composition like this on a tiny little panel.


(8 x 8 inches)
20 x 20cm approx
Oil on Gessobord   

All Is Rosy

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 9

Another rose from the same bunch as yesterday, I got into observing all the variations of color I could see in the shadows in-between and under the rose petals.
I have found that when trying to capture roses, the painting goes through an 'ugly stage' where it doesn't look much like anything. You have to fight your way past this stage - eventually a likeness of a rose emerges.

(6 x 6 inches)
15 x 15cm approx
Oil on Gessobord 

January Rose

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 8

This rose study almost turned out a bit Georgia O'Keeffe abstract-ish. Not sure how that happened. Sometimes it just happens.
I'm 1/4 of the way into my 31 day challenge now and using the opportunity so far to tackle flowers which I find difficult to do.

(6 x 6 inches)
15 x 15cm approx
Oil on Gessobord

Rose Buddies

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 2

Two roses from the same bunch as yesterday. This bunch was picked up from Trader Joes - one of my favorite places to buy flowers as they have such a nice selection at a reasonable price and the flowers always look more natural than some you buy these days. I wish they would state the name of the variety of rose though. These are so pretty - a sort of variegated red, peachy colour.  The glass was a bit of a challenge - I tried not to fuss too much with it. I'm trying to put down a brush stroke, then leaving it alone.

(8 x 8 inches)
20 x 20cm approx
Oil on Gessobord

New Year's Rose

Daily Painting Challenge - Day 1

So it's January 1st 2018.

This year I had fully intended to give myself a challenge: starting February 1st, I was going to try to complete a painting-a-day every day for 30 days.
I tried this once before but only managed around 15 paintings.
THEN someone posted this on facebook - a company called Strada are having a competition to win one of their easels - to paint thirty paintings in JANUARY.
So here I am, starting in January instead.

This is my first painting.

My personal aim with this challenge is:
1. To speed up my painting time
2. To loosen my brushstrokes
3. To not worry so much about composition.
4. To get into a habit of painting every day.
5. To stop procrastinating.

I'm not aiming to complete a gallery quality piece with every painting but I'm hoping to learn something in the process and hopefully knock one or two paintings out of the park along the way.

There is always something to do everyday that stops me from painting, so I had a good studio clearout and have resolved to let the washing-up and housework wait (it's going to be a messy month).

(8 x 8 inches)
20 x 20cm approx
Oil on Gessobord


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STUDIO TOUR