- So day 2 of this painting began with the roses blocked in with colour in a race against time to capture the colours and shapes.
- I love to use the wet-in-wet technique when I first block in the colour. I mix up and main three of four colours I see and then paint them in simultaneously and let them bleed and run into each other. The beauty of gouache over acrylic is that I can ‘wake’ up that dried paint at any stage which is what I tend to do once it’s dried and I’m giving the petals a further wash of colour and some detailing.
- It took me along time to paint around the roses and put in such a complicated background – thank heavens for audible!
- I made the blue paler than it actually is, purposefully as I didn’t want to over-power the pink flower heads.
- Finally on day 3 I painted in the leaves, vase and china bird. After 3 solid days it was exciting to be on the home run now and adding that pop of bright leaf-green got me excited to see the finished piece.
- I think this painting has an old world quality about it mainly due to the style and colour of the rose which reminds me of 1950’s greetings cards.
© Claire Leggett Roses
