Rosie’s Roses

My wife always tries to get me to paint still life paintings. She loves flowers. I guess I’m just a guy – I really don’t think much about them. When she wants me to do them I have her come up with the layout. I tell her to decide what I’ll paint. Then I do it.

I am a believer in making the layout interesting. You will notice that the vase is not in the center of the painting, and the flowers are not, either. I like to paint large enough that the subject matter flows off the canvas. This vase  was a pottery project in my daughter’s high school pottery class. The glaze didn’t work very well, but I love how it turned out. You can see the direction the light comes. It hits the vase in the front, and can be seen on the edges of the rose petals as well. I have tried to portray shadow and light in the leaves. This is done with different color tones and values. The background is a white tablecloth. The folds are shown with blue shadows. What more can I say? My wife likes the painting.