Pink Perfume

Pink, pansy, perfume, pearls, and  pomp.  What two things do they have in common?  The answer is the letter "P" and Photoshop!  I was in a "pink" mood yesterday, and created a couple of background designs using my Gelli Plate.  I combined them with a watercolor background, blended them using several blending modes, then layered the photo elements and this is what I produced!  It is exciting to see a "feeling" realized.  Hope your feeling in the "pink zone" today.  Have a wonderful day and please visit How Sweet the Sound and participate in Pink Saturday with me!

Delphiniums

The tall stocks and the vibrant, yet delicate flowers of delphiniums speak to me of the early days of summer.  I love the height they attain, standing so tall and straight.

You might also know this flower as larkspur, though it's name is derived from the Greek word for dolphin.

In the Victorian language of flowers, the delphinium symbolizes devoted attachment to your love, big-heartedness, enthusiasm, fun and lightheartedness.  Being a daughter of an astronomer, I love the star-shaped petals fluttering in a soft breeze like twinkling stars.

For those of you who celebrate your birthday in the month of July, this flower is your birth flower.  Loved creating this composition of delphiniums for you to enjoy!

Participate in Pink Saturday with me at How Sweet the Sound.

Roses on Wallpaper

The neat thing about being a creative is that you can find all kinds of things to paint upon.  Wallpaper lends itself to some exciting backgrounds.  It doesn't have to be perfect either.  Ripped, torn, dirty.  All the better.

This is a background I made from some wallpaper, added the writing and grunge.  Once painted, I tore the edges and antiqued them.

The painting is mounted to a mat and framed as shown below.  This background, without the three painted roses, is available as a digital download to be printed using your own printer.  Visit www.rosecote.com.

 Thank you to Beverly for her dedication to Pink Saturday.  How Sweet the Sound.

Oil Painting Expressions

Oil Painting Expressions, an online oil painting course, has kicked off Session Four. I am teaching the first lesson, Ageless Beauty. There are 8 lessons from 8 talented artists plus the new Oil Basics Brush Ups series. New to oils? We make it easy to learn! Watch and paint along with the short tutorials in the Oil Basics Brush Ups Series covering topics like surface preparation, blending, leaves, twigs, fruit, flower petals, shapes, gold leafing, varnishing, and more. Already an accomplished oil painter? Then you can pick up some valuable oil techniques to add to your skillset! Visit www.oilpaintingexpressions.com to find out more. Join us for 11 months of painting inspriration and learning all in the comfort of your own surroundings!gold leafing, varnishing, and more. Already an accomplished oil painter? Then you can pick up some valuable oil techniques to add to your skillset! Visit www.oilpaintingexpressions.com to find out more. Join us for 11 months of painting inspriration and learning all in the comfort of your own surroundings!gold leafing, varnishing, and more.  Already an accomplished oil painter?  Then pick up some valuable oil techniques to add to your skillset.  New to oils?  We make it easy to learn.

Visit www.oilpaintingexpressions.com to find out more.  Join us for 11 months of painting inspiration and learning all in the comfort of your own surroundings.

Digi Paper Printables

Follow Jeanne's board Rosecote Design Elegance on Pinterest.

 

A White Hot July Day

A white hot July day presents the perfect opportunity to paint something cool.  My thoughts immediately drift to delicate cool, soft pink and lavendar English roses.  Of course!  The background selection is easy.......white.  Now it is time to find the right design to paint.....something loose and flowing.  There it is.  Just the right surface, a "peek-a-boo", stand-alone frame.  Roses and ribbon.

On my palette, I squeeze out Burnt Carmine, Radiant Violet, Raw Sienna, Naples Yellow Light, and Titanium White.

With a crystal glass of ice cold violet and rose tea, I am ready to paint the roses.  Warm and cool whites create the delicate pinks and lavendars as I pull the rounded petals through the undercolor placed in the flower form.  Layering on petal by petal with more white or naples yellow light.  A touch of burnt carmine.  A speck of raw sienna.  An accent of radiant violet.  Add some depth.  Accentuate a light.  Value creates form.  Warm up a petal, cool one down.  Play with  the temperature of the color.  Temperature creates depth.  It's hot outside.  My brush is "smoking", but I am lost in a my pink zone creating cool, soft, delicate beauty.

Now the leaves.  They should be cool greens with a warm tone here and there.  I'll use chromium oxide green, a little cadmium yellow pale, black and some white.  Add an accent of burnt carmine to relate them to the roses.  Maybe a touch of radiat violet.  Oh, and some raw sienna, but not too much.  I don't want the leaves to look too much like autumn.  Vary the values of the leaves.  Create interest among the leaves with warm and cool tempertures within the leaf colors.  There, just right.

The ribbon is next.  Maybe I will make it a littler warmer than the roses.  I will use the same color as I used in the roses, just more radiant violet and naples yellow light.  Maybe more burnt carmine to blend with the radiant violet.  That makes a pretty, cool pink.  Twists and folds, flips and turns.  Play darks against lights to get the ribbon to flow through the design.  Again, work with the temperature of the colors.  That looks good.

Finally, assess the design again, as a whole unit.  Add some intense color here and there.  Burnt carmine.  Some white, maybe.  Now it "pops"!  Oh, tone down a rose petal with a light green used in the leaves.  Ok, that is better.  Maybe one of the pinks on my pallete would look good on a leaf.  Yes, that works.  I am loving it!

The final touch.  Add stems and tendrils.  Fleck with a soft, cool green.  Sign my name.  Done!

I can truly say that this painting was inspired by the heat.  A white hot July day.

My Pink Saturday Tea Set

Last week I showed you my teacup, so this week I want to show you the tea set.  I love the line, the scrollwork, the shape, and the pink of it!  It makes me feel good when I use it, but also just seeing it in my china cupboard!

This is a porcelain plate that I painted a few years ago.  It compliments the tea set, I think.  These lines, gold trim, the color pink, and of course, roses, are embedded in my bones!

I want to do a painting of one of the pieces of the tea set.  Maybe I will try to do a digital one!

Thank you to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for hosting another grand Pink Saturday!

Pink Saturday Almost Slips Away

Here it is Pink Saturday, and I almost missed it!  Where does the time go?

This week I have been searching for pink plums.  I want to put them in a painting composition.  Yes, I know, I can paint a plum with pink accents and overtones, but I wanted to see if there really was such a thing.  Many trips to different grocery stores did not reveal any pink plums.  So I went to the Internet and I found this stock photo of pink plums!  Developed in England in the 1870s, Czar is a variety of plum that has an excellent flavor.  Wow!  Not only pink plums for Pink Saturday, but I learned something too!  Wish I could taste one.

There will be pink plums in a painting very soon, not something from my creative imagination, but truly real!

I Love Hydrangeas

Soon I will buy my annual hydrangea bush for the yard.  I don't seem to have much luck growing them here in Northern Colorado from one year to the next.  Since growing them is a challange for me, I can paint them from pictures I have taken, arrangements, or use artificial hydrangeas as my model.  I also like to browse through a book I purchased several years ago.  It is titled, Hydrangeas, by Darla Price Bowman.  There are photos of hydrangeas in every setting and a variety of species.  The photography is well done.  The text offers hydrangea legends and lore, "explores the mysteries of hyrangeas' color", and gives details on how to dry hydrangeas for bouquets.

You may find this book and others to be your inspiration for your next hydrangea painting.  I am in a "hydrangea frame of mind" and there is a painting taking shape!  I am getting ready to decorate for spring....7 more days!

Where is Spring?

Spring Countdown.....16 days.  If only Colorado weather would follow the calendar.  March and April are typically our snowiest months, so I am not deluding myself.  But "Hope SPRINGS Eternal"!  Today, it is supposed to get up to 58 degrees.  Yay!  Maybe that 5 foot deep bank of snow on the North side of the house will be somewhat reduced in size.  Whoops, extended forecast says........snow tonight, and tomorrow.

Since it looks like my rose bushes are to remain covered with snow, I am getting out my David Austin's English Roses, Glorious New Roses for American Gardens.  I have had this book for many years, and it continues to inspire me.  Every page is a color plate with cascades of roses, bouquets of roses, 'botanical' photos of single roses, rose gardens, and rose illustrations.  It is a book that is good for the soul of a rose lover.

Another Inspirational Book

I love teapots and teacups and taking tea. Usually tea shops have a small section filled with wonderful treasures. At one of these shops, I found just such a treasure. The book is titled Shelley Chintz by Kelly L. Moran, and is filled with photographs of chintz teacups, saucers, teapots of every description. But, the real treat is the photographs of some of the original drawings of patterns from the Shelley Pattern Books at Royal Doulton.

Leafing through the book fills my head with ideas, and I can't help but dream of elegant tea rooms, the fragrance of tea brewing, and little shops filled with tea accouterments, and how I might go about painting a chintz teapot still life.

Books to Inspire

Though I am not a china painter, I love painting on matted china. Matted china is porcelain bisque with a "mat" fired on the surface giving it a fine tooth. This is an excellent surface for painting with oils because the surface does not chew up the bristles on my brushes. Looking at the all white surface can be daunting. The curves of a vase or teapot have to be taken into consideration when creating the painted design. Often, there are embossed elements on the surface that influence the design process. As I sit and stare at the china piece I want to paint, the question is always, "Where do I begin?".

I have found a book written by Debby DuBay, titled, Antique Limoges at Home, which is filled with beautiful color photographs of rare Limoges of all descritpions. The pieces are breath-taking and the photograpy is excellent. Besides being a must-have book for collectors, it offers inspriation for the artist. If you love painting china, you will want this book. Ms. DuBay has also written a book titled, Living with Limoges. Both of these books are in my library.

Leafing through these books at night before I retire fills my head with design ideas, color combinations, and by morning, I know just what I am going to do with that blank china piece.