Welcome to Polly's Blog

Welcome to Polly's Blog
Watercolour, humour, this and that

Saturday, 12 July 2014

ROSES GALORE

Right well, I hate painting flowers.  Tried to paint a rose and it was awful.  So decided to master a nice loose rose if it killed me!  Here is my progress.  The way I did it reminded me of when I was at school, cramming just before the exams.

First of all I aplogise for duplicating some of the roses.  I have been trying out collage editing using Picasa and Photoshop.  It's taken that long that I have not bothered checking them!


First of all I sketched some roses to try and understand the form of these beautiful flowers, pencil, elegant finewriter and stabilo water soluble.


Here are several roses.  These are influenced in most part by Jean Haines, Hazel Soan and Janet Whittle.  I am using free paper that I got from an Art Festival (St Cuthberts paper) and have decided I don't like Hot pressed.  Also trying different colours (some not real) therefore trying to add more fun to the exercise.


Now progressing I feel and becoming more experimental.  The real word is winging it!  Most of all the above roses and the other collages are without drawing.  Some painted from roses in the garden.  Middle bottom is a bright brusho painting  which it is in fact quite large and is landscape format, as is the bottom right hand one which is on the impossibly unpredicatable Yupo paper.  Now I was getting to enjoy painting flowers, a feat in itself.


Ah, at last!  I feel I have made progress.  The first is loosely based on a Janet Whittle painting in one of her books and the second is a tribute to my lovely Mum, who loved her garden and her roses.  I picked two different roses from my garden and put them a glass top hat that belonged to her and which I turned upside down and put some fresh water in for the roses.

I actually painted over 40 roses!  I feel all the effort was worthwhile.

A serious post for once.

I wish you all a wonderful rest of the weekend. xx
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24 comments:

  1. Rita Vaselli12 July 2014 at 13:57

    A lot of effort,dear Polly... the rose is a flower complicated to paint without drawing anything!
    Having painted many many roses you get very brilliant results.

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    1. Polly Birchall13 July 2014 at 11:56

      Thanks you Rita. Means a lot coming from you, who paints the most beautiful flowers

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  2. Lorraine Brown12 July 2014 at 14:32

    Definitely a serious post, this is a lot of work Polly but because you stuck with you have been rewarded. I have not yet found my way with Roses and instead of sticking with trying I move on but it is obvious that commitment and practice is the key, oh and of course style and yours shines through

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    1. Polly Birchall13 July 2014 at 11:57

      I just had to get it out of my system Lorraine. Now I can move on. You are far too busy with your amazing 'series' paintings to practice anything

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  3. Kat Farmer/van Hookens13 July 2014 at 00:42

    ...yep, I'd say ya can paint them roses now, well done and gold star fer stickin' at it, your progress with the rose speaks for itself :)

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    1. Polly Birchall13 July 2014 at 11:57

      Many thanks Kat. Not like me to stick at something, but I'm glad I did.

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    2. Polly Birchall13 July 2014 at 11:58

      Thank you Kat. It's not like me to stick at something, and for once I am glad I did.

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  4. Judith Farnworth Art13 July 2014 at 02:29

    You have proved it is all about practice Polly, so well done and a achievement!! This should be very inspiring for others too, nice post!!

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    1. Polly Birchall13 July 2014 at 11:59

      Oh thank you Judith. And thanks for your suggestions too, really was a help. Perhaps I will practice something else one day, it wasn't as painful as I thought

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  5. Sadami13 July 2014 at 17:35

    Oh, Polly, your wonderful work and guts must be appreciated fully!!! Wonderful. I have to confess I'm not a big fan for flowers, either. Your big efforts inspire me much. Thank u. Please be kind and enjoy this week! Best wishes, Sadami

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    1. Polly Birchall15 July 2014 at 00:41

      Thank you Sadami, for taking the time to comment, you're a busy bee! Have a lovely week yourself xx

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  6. Judy14 July 2014 at 00:59

    Your exercise certainly was worthwhile, Polly! Your blogs is smelling of roses! I love them.

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    1. Polly Birchall15 July 2014 at 00:41

      Thanks a lot Judy, and thanks for passing by.

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  7. Mrs A.14 July 2014 at 13:34

    Your roses are really beautiful. I have just found your blog in a round about way from ordering some Brusho paint pots and found you had had a go last year using them. Hugs ValeryAnne.

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    1. Polly Birchall15 July 2014 at 00:49

      Thank you for popping over. I went to a workshop with Joanne Boon Thomas and fell for the medium. I still use it and love it. It's exciting to paint with. Check out her site www.artybyboon.co.uk. She has done a small clip on Youtube for the Brusho company. I hope you enjoy playing with it. I will visit your blog and see what you do. Thanks again :)

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  8. Debbie Nolan15 July 2014 at 05:39

    Polly - for a woman who doesn't like to paint flowers - you certainly are doing beautiful paintings. I can feel your heart in the last one in the hat of your Mom's. Clearly your practices have brought great results. Have a lovely week.

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    1. Polly Birchall15 July 2014 at 11:20

      I knew I wanted to paint a 'special' rose for the last one, Mum would have loved that. I will paint the odd flower in the future and am going on a day workshop next month, to help me along. Have a wonderful week and thank you, Debbie.

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    2. Polly Birchall15 July 2014 at 11:21

      This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. Helen H Trachy15 July 2014 at 20:34

    All these exercices did pay off, didn't they! Some of these roses are little beauties. I find roses really hard to paint. You're the expert now! :)

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    1. Polly Birchall16 July 2014 at 00:45

      Thanks. Nice of you to say so. Not an expert but better than I was!

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  10. Celeste Bergin16 July 2014 at 07:37

    This is really inspirational! I'm very impressed. When I first started painting I tried roses and oh my, I got a headache looking at the maze of petals. Your roses are delicious! There are several that are just perfection. Excellent work!

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    1. Polly Birchall16 July 2014 at 23:30

      Thanks a lot Celeste. Your flowers are lovely so it's nice to hear you like mine :)

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  11. Celia Blanco16 July 2014 at 22:39

    This is a sweet smelling post! I love your roses, you had an excellent idea and your hard work paid off! Beautiful, fresh loose watercolors of roses. I love roses but find them difficult to paint, every once in a while I throw one in but deep down dislike painting them!

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    1. Polly Birchall16 July 2014 at 23:31

      Well Celia, as hard as I tried, it will be a long time before I do roses again, it's hard to do them justice.

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