Painting Roses and Flowers

[Jeri McDonald]

I began to paint roses and some flowers this month for the first time in oils. They are truly fun but I prefer landscape painting over them. These were done from some of my own roses and they are called "Double Delight". I did them from photographs I took a few years ago. 

What was different in doing these, was the supports I used. I made my own from masonite, and then primed them with Gamblin's oil ground instead of water based gesso. I added texture as well specifically to do this subject matter. The texture is great for creating a look of leaves, stems and flowers. First I put down a wash of real turpentine very thinly and it dries quickly so I can begin painting on top without muddying up the colors. Everything was done wet on wet in a few hours. 

There is no better surface to work on in my opinion. It's well worth the effort to make your own supports. I made many smooth ones as well to do my landscapes on. The brush just glides over the surface and the paint stays much more saturated after drying. The colors are truly brilliant as they will not absorb into the surface. You can wipe away paint easily if you mess up an area or remove paint where you need a clean white background.

[Ann Turner]

Thanks for sharing your process Jeri. I also like textured panels as taught by Stu. It takes awhile to get used to them but once you do, no worry about canvas thread marks showing.