It's not as mind boggling as I thought it would be, yay! This was a rose of my own front yard.
In the pic above you see how the roses from one my oldest bushes looked like. It was already there when we bought the (former) house.
In the last stages of her short life, she began to look like a butterfly. In a vase on my table the flowers' petals stayed in this position for more than a week (at mid summer Californian temps!). Her long life was well deserving of bcoming the first big flower of my Celebrity Collection.
A year before I had bought a 24 x 24 canvas, just out of curiosity since I had never worked with that size. But I never knew what to do with it. When I looked at the way the petals were positioned, I thought, the worst that can happen is that I have to paint over it when it bums.
Isn't she a beauty?
I took the jump and painted this rose that led me eventually to paint more than ten other flowers, filling up all of the space of a 24 x 24 canvas. That the first one was pink, is kind of odd to me, because I'm definitely not a person who prefers pink. When you compare the photo to the painting, you may see that I don't use a photo to copy an image, but as reference material.
One of the first things I had to get used to with flowers is that you paint the shadows of the petals, otherwise the painting looks like an outline. As you know, the position of form of shadows change as the day progresses.
In the afternoon this looked like a different flower!
My solution was to work very fast on the same hours each morning, and propping up the petals so they would stay in the same position as they were wilting.
Late Bloomer, 24 x 24, Oil, St.GermainThe idea may be reminiscent of O'Keefe (although it was not my intent to copy her. Actually I first resisted the idea to paint a big flower, because I knew it would be compared to O'Keefe's paintings), but I definitely have a different painting style.
You gotto know that artists abhor the idea of having the same style as another painter. Not because they hate other painters or artists, but because an artists like to be individualists.
I'm sure I grew up in the "right" country (Holland) for that :).
For a slide show of the Celebrity collection of about 14 flowers,I posted a slide show of the Celebrity Collection on 1/26/09.
~
11 comments:
I love your paint Jeannette... The draw is better than the photo of the rose.
The rain is still falling, I must stop the computer again
Bye
Doowmée
Lovely, Jeanette. That rose is so soft and feminine. I did think of O'Keefe when you were talking about canvas size and the rose. But it's all you. Pink is a lovely color - when the flowers wear it.
As a rug hooker who designs I understand completely how one wants to have one's own style. Sometimes I don't even want to look at other's designs!
I do think the old roses are the best - colour, smell, shape - and they look so lovely in paintings.
That is beautiful! There are more flower posts to come, I hope. :)
Jeannette: Beautiful captures in photos and paint, you do a wonderful job.
What a gorgeous rose. You have captured it perfectly in your painting - so very very beautiful!
I think that the large single rose is the only similarity to O'Keefe's paintings - this one is definitely YOUR style, totally different.
I hope you are having a wonderful week!
What a beautiful painting! I love the colors you used and while I don't care for pink too much, every once in a while, it speaks to me. Like this painting!
Thanks for coming to my blog. To answer your question: I have dual citizenship because when I became an American citizen I did not give up my French citizenship, so I have two passports. With some countries if you become an American you have to give up your original citizenship, but not with France – you would have to make a special request to give up being a citizen of France. I looked at your posts. They are interesting. I’ll come back. I am behind reading all the posts of my blogging friends after being gone 3 weeks and we are going away again next week, but I’ll come back later. Thanks for leaving a comment. I also liked your rose – I love flowers and especially roses.
Doowmee,
Thank you, friend! Hope there will be a better solution for when the rain falls! (It must be frustrating!)
Stephanie,
Thanks, Stephanie! So true, designs from others are sometimes stand in the way for our own creativity:)
Weaver,
Thank you, friend! I don't know of any people who do not like a rose:)
Ginger,
Yeah, I think I will (I had all my flower paintings on a slide show Jan.'09, but I've discovered since then that people like to know about the process from beginning to end!)
Thanks for visiting!
Fishing Guy,
Thank you Tom! Throw me some of the coins on your header my way too (I thought that idea for your header was terrific!)!
Clytie,
It always strikes me how good you are in personalizing your compliments! You have the gift of making people feel good about what they're doing:)
Rudee,
Thank you Rudee:) Am glad that I've met women at this blog who are not fans of all pink and frilly!! Pink is like orange or brown for me - once in a while it's okay:)
Vagabonde,
Love your hair in your profile pic -so wild:) Wouldn't suprise me if that is also part of your personality!
Thank you for explaining about dual citizenship - I diidn't know - I am Dutch and there they don't allow dual citizenship:(
Since my mother's maiden name is Saint Germain I really like it that I'm meeting some French people at this blog site!
Wonderful painting, Jeannette, with so lovely shades.
Pietro,
Thank you so much! Have a great weekend:)
Post a Comment