A Bounty of Roses

Today I sing the Praises of Roses. Beautiful, sweet smelling, fragrant, a feast for your eyes, and a joy to behold, lovely roses in the garden. You cannot have too many roses. Buy them from a bargain bin, bare root at Home Depot or Wall Mart. Buy climbing roses, David Austin Roses, Heritage old Roses, but buy them and plant them. They will bring joy to your heart, and peace to your soul. The Flowers I paint and the fruit I paint is grown on our Acre of land. Whenever I feel low I can walk the property camera in hand, and find beautiful subjects for future paintings. Today I will share two miniature paintings of Oranges and Roses, and a large 24"x30" Oil Painting on Canvas of Roses and Oranges. I fixed about 3 Bouquet arrangements in vases, and then took different tea cups, pitchers, my Aunt Betty's fans and statues and set up different still life's outside and photographed them. I work from my photographs, but I always paint with fresh flowers in front of me while painting. That way I see the delicate beauty and subtle glow that is hard to see in photographs. From that I painted the miniatures in Alkyds and Oil on Board, the large Vase of Roses on Canvas, and the small watercolor on Board. I obviously love fruit paintings, and we planted many fruit trees when we moved here. Fruit and nut trees are food for the body, but Flowers and especially Roses are food for the soul. I hope you enjoy these paintings as I did making them. I hope you have roses in your life, and if you can't afford them plant some Nasturtiums from seeds or Morning Glories from seed. They always come up and take very little food or water. Everyone should have the beauty of flowers in their life. Keep painting the subjects you love, and love what you paint. That love will show in your work. Strive to do your best, forgive yourself your mistakes, and move on to your next project. Everything is a learning curve, and it take perseverance to attain the skill to become good at what you do. Have a lovely flowerful day, and write when you get work. I hope you enjoy these photographs of my view from my kitchen window, and the still life paintings of Roses and Fruit.