Two years ago I took a photograph of some roses I brought in from the outside and have been waiting for a good time to paint them – well actually until I felt a bit more confident. The flower challenge seemed a perfect opportunity to give it a go ~
Red Roses, #11 an oil pastel (12×9) was done on a gesso prepared hardboard, using mainly Sennelier and Holbein oil pastels. This painting was started with an acrylic underpainting and then two gesso layers were applied to seal in the underpainting and also to give the surface a gritty tooth for the OPs to grab onto.
This setting for flowers is my favorite because of the back-lighting coming in from the window – encasing the roses with a soft glow. These particular roses are a deep red, overflowing with petals and size, and in the right light have a bit of an orange cast on the tips of some of the petals.
The painting has a very rich look to it, unfortunately no matter how I tried to photograph the piece I wasn’t able to capture it adequately. Hopefully you an idea – click onto the image for a larger view.
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Oil Pastels by Mary 
Really really beautiful…
Thank you Mithai – very nice to meet you!
Very nice to meet you too Mary!! 🙂
Extremely beautiful! They are my favourite flowers. 🙂
Thank you and lovely to meet you!
Likewise. 🙂 A virtual hug on your way. :-
I really love these, Mary. So soft looking!
Thank you Patsy!!
love the view from the window 🙂
Thank you Heath!
I love this one, Mary. It all just comes together.
Thank you so much Jane! Hope you have a wonderful week.
I can’t believe I just saw this one…Absolutely beautiful, I had to blink a couple of times because I thought it was a photo of roses. Fantastic job, I think it’s safe to say that flowers are no longer a challenge.
Thank you Isabel – you are very kind! I’ve got a climber bush that I’ll be painting in this series, we’ll see how that goes.
Stunning work as always
Thanks Eunice!
This one is your best yet Mary! Love the way you handled every detail from the light from the window gently highlighting the edges of the perfectly depicted rises; to the transparency in both window and vase; to to subtle reflected colors of the window frame! Bravo!!
Hi Rhonda, thanks very much. The reference was one of my favorite taken of a great batch of roses we got two years back – I just happened to take it at the right time of day for the soft lighting effect bouncing off the vase, window and roses. Really enjoyed reading your feedback on this painting ~
Beautiful! I grew up near Sodus Point, too, outside Rochester.
Thanks Brenda! Very cool – we are sisters then ~ Sodus Point has really changed for the better over the last decade. A beautiful area.
Perhaps I will try to visit next time I’m in Rochester to see my parents.
Hope you do Brenda, it’s a nice little place out of the way – with a pretty beach.
Haven’t been since I was a kid. 🙂 It’s such a beautiful area.
This is a beautiful painting, Mary. I love the deep color of the roses, you really captured their fullness and beauty.
Thank you so much Janell – love your feedback!! That’s what I really liked about these roses, the deep color and then the light created this soft backdrop – happy I was able to translate this in the painting. Have a wonderful week!
Beautiful, Mary!
Thank so much Geralyn!
Lovely! Makes me want to go out and pick myself a bunch of roses and put them on my window sill. 🙂 I will have to wait until I have some to pick!
Thank you so much Susan – so funny. I’ll send some of my roses over your way, they are in full bloom! Soon enough you’ll have plenty around you, Spring has just hit your area ~ have a wonderful week.
It’s so beautiful! 🙂 Bravo, Mary!
Thank you Calee – wishing a wonderful blogging break!
Gorgeous!
Thank you Dsaquarelles! Have a lovely week ~
Luscious, full and rich are your red roses and that beautiful back light and light colored background supporting wonderfully and displaying up the beauty of it! Love the angle of this composition as well, an other perfectly executed painting and is getting more and more beautiful each and every time. This is one of your best and most enjoyable challenges Mary!
Have a most wonderful Sunday and a great week ahead!
Hi Eva, thank you so much for your generous feedback and compliments on this painting. I’ve wanted to paint my photo of these roses for the longest time, finally got up enough nerve to try it. Was a fun piece to work on. Building the color layers of the rose petals was awesome, but the light was the key to giving the roses a certain soft elegance. So happy you are enjoying this series – was a mental challenge to get me into the game at first, but glad I stayed with it. Have a wonderful week ahead!
Beautiful!….. have a lovely weekend… 🙂
Thanks so much Maniparna! It was a wonderful weekend, my best to you in this week ahead!
Values in reds are notoriously difficult to achieve, but you’ve done it! Kudos to you, Mary:)
Thanks Elena – it was great fun working the reds, oranges and pinks in this scene. Appreciate your encouraging support!
Another beautiful piece Mary! You are doing a great job with this flower challenge!~Rita
Thanks Rita. This was a bunch of my roses from a couple of years ago that I’m glad they were included in this challenge – was fun to paint.
Freshness and serenity – the light and colours. So beautifully done, Mary.I know red to be almost impossible to photograph, so I understand what you are saying – you never will get satisfied even if others do not see that there’s a difference…But the colour looks perfect to me.
Thank you so much Ann-Christine for your thoughtful comments and feedback. I should just give up trying to photograph red, lol – I think it took longer to photograph this than it took to paint it.
The backlighting is just perfect for these roses. Lovely.
Thank you Gallivanta – the back-lighting is what attracted me to paint the scene. Thanks for mentioning.
I also enjoy the rich colour of the roses, especially against the green of the foliage, Mary. Such a contrast to the softer colours around it.
Thank you so much Don – wonderful description of what spoke to you about this piece. I had a lot of fun developing and building the layers of colors for the rose petals and leaves. My favorite part of this piece. Hope you have a lovely weekend.
Thanks Mary.
Yes, indeed. That’s really lovely!
Thank you Marcus!!
Another beautiful piece of art. What I also like are the different colours you used on the window sill to depict shadow. Lovely.
Thanks so much Joanna for your lovely thoughts on this piece. My fear of painting white, continues to show in this piece – the wood work is solid glossy white, so I tried to keep building in colors of white, but not to my satisfaction. So I might work some this summer on painting white using a very limited palette – I’ll have to think about that as my next challenge.
They look so real Mary. I feel like I could just take one! Beautiful. 🙂
So cool Karen, what a great compliment. Very happy you enjoyed this piece.
So so beautiful!!! 🙂 ❤
Thank you very much Trini!
I find red almost impossible to photograph. You have captured the color beautifully!
Thanks Audrey, you are so right. It took me over an hour to get this photograph and still it lacks the full richness of the rose petals. Thank you so much for your beautiful comment – hope you have a wonderful weekend.
Beautiful work! I love the deep rich color of the roses and the overall composition. Have a great weekend! 🙂
Thanks so much Jackie – loved your thoughts and feedback. Wish you could see the painting in person, the colors of the rose petals are very rich and deep as you describe – more so than the photograph. I really enjoyed developing this scene.
YOur roses are absolutely stunning, Mary. I love the colour. 🙂
Thank you Sylvia for such a generous comment. The painting is a little tight, next time the roses will be slightly more loose as they spill out of the vase. Have a great weekend.
This is One of my favorites too! Love the rich color of the roses and beautiful lighting through the window… Thank you, Mary!
Thank you so much Amy – the color of these roses are my favorite. So glad you enjoyed this piece. The soft light coming in from the window was a perfect setting to show of these roses.
Red of this painting is so striking, Mary! But, you paint pink, green,… all beautifully. The angle you took of the window is perfect. All made such a beautiful, elegant painting. 🙂
Thanks Amy. The deeper red were developed with Vandyke Brown, Indigo and some Magenta – this combination really helped to set the stage for the lighter areas.
Ah… 🙂
Highly resolved work, Miss Mary
going from strength to strength
Big Hugs
uncle john
Thank you Uncle John, I like your description – you’ve made my day!
Oh Mary, this is beautiful! Definitely one of my favorites. 🙂
Thanks so much Jill – glad you enjoyed the painting! Have a wonderful weekend.
This is very accomplished in every way, Mary…amazing how one can grow over the years, isn’t it?
Thank you so much Cynthia – love your beautiful comment! This specimen of roses aren’t even my largest – I’ve got one bush that I transplanted last year that I swear the opened rose was larger than a man’s opened hand – it’s awesome. I have one more painting of a climber rose bush that we have growing against a wrought iron fence – can’t wait to paint this, perhaps it will be my last one in this series. Have a lovely weekend.
Ah, Mary, your flowers have a richness of colour while at the same time, not losing their ‘nature’. Beautiful!! 🙂
Ah Marina – I so get your comment, love it. Thank you so much and much appreciated. Have a beautiful weekend my friend. Hope to see a new painting from you soon – miss them.
I promise!!! 😉
🙂
This is really nice and a lovely composition. The roses come across as having a lot of fullness and body to them. Well done! I think roses/flowers in general are difficult to paint. I’m working on a painting of red/ burgundy roses for someone currently so I appreciate your post.
Hi Catherine – wanted to let you know that your comment went into spam. Thank you so much for your generous thoughts on this painting. I’m still very tight with painting roses/flowers, and hoping that the more I paint them (as well as working with charcoal) that I’ll loosen up. I’ll bet your flower painting will be gorgeous – I love your work. Have a great weekend.
Gorgeous, Mary! Happy weekend.
Thank you so much Angie – hope you have a lovely weekend.
Mary, this is lovely! It is deep and rich and stunningly simple (though not in effort I am sure!)
Thank you A! appreciate your feedback, it took quite a while to finish this piece. Have a lovely weekend.
Beautiful work ❤ i love that 🙂
Thank you Leyla!