I recently had some requests to do painting demonstrations in the coming months; two of them were for watercolour and one wanted a floral painting in watercolour. I was pondering on what to do when I recalled a painting of the yellow roses that grow in my garden which I did in 2019 and posted on this blog. I was pleased with it at the time, but it has hung around unsold and I thought that it might be a good opportunity to revitalise it and also have it as a subject ready for a couple of demos.
The original one, which I have put below, had quite a lot of hard edges and was perhaps a bit stolid, so I thought that I would incorporate more soft edges and mix those edges up a bit, as well as emphasising the light source to give the image more oomph. Also, in the first one I played around with purples and blues in the foliage to complement the yellows and I thought I could increase this contrast. So here is the result.
I will do another one, with an extra rose – more like the one below – to put up for sale. The one above is just a pilot for the demos. The more complicated you get the painting, the longer it takes to do and there is a chance you’ll not finish it on the night. In any case, I think there is enough in this one to provide a good example of my working practice. For a piece for sale I think the extra rose will give it a better balance.
Other floral paintings – and the one above – are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com