“A rose.”
The time is flying by. It feels like it goes faster and faster. And on top of that, all of the sudden, summer. A very hot summer. The hottest summer in a long time. Not to mention dry. And these are only a few of the reasons I wasn’t able to paint en plein air lately. I’d rather paint something in the relative coolness of the studio. And that means, a still life, obviously. I was, again and unsurprisingly, very busy at work, hence I got back home, quite late, every day. This combined with a bit of procrastination, yes I admit it and I ended up at the weekend with nothing completed, not even started, something new for me, but I guess, we all have bad moments.
Anyway, because I was planning for this Sunday to visit the Royal Academy of Art, Summer exhibition 2018, I have decided, for my weekly painting to go small. Not tiny, but one of my smallest sizes, 18 X 24 cm (7” X 9”).
I finished the painting on Saturday afternoon, after work; I started it on Friday evening, and did few retouches to the background on Sunday after coming back from London.
And I have to say, I had a great day in London. Very warm, but a great experience. We visited the Summer Exhibition at the RA, which was an anniversary one, the 250th edition. And the lead coordinator was the great artist Grayson Perry CBE RA.
A very enjoyable experience.
And, because we had some spare time we went to Victoria and Albert Museum, where we visited the paintings section; it is a huge museum, it would take days to visit it properly. There is, at the moment an exhibition about Frida Kahlo, but it was all sold out for the month. We will try to see it later this year, it goes till November.
Back to the painting now. I set up one rose, using a black background.
I didn’t paint sight size, this time, enlarging the rose, for a better composition. I used a reduced palette, as per usual, again no medium, just some turps. When I returned from London, I have noticed the background dried rather dull, so I retouched it, with some Italian Cassel, cobalt blue and some yellow ochre. I applied it rather thick. If it dries again the same, I will have to revive it with some Liquin, as I did with other paintings before. Because of the thick paint I will sign it after it dries.
So, here it is:
“A Rose.”
Oil on linen.
18 X 24cm (7” X 9”)
