Roses grow on you...

Last month began with the start of a series of small rose artworks to trial a new method to me. Working in layers of oil paints on clear primed linen canvas boards 20cm x 20cm. You can see the first attempt here, which I started in messy charcoal, but luckily after the layer of white gesso dried, the excess charcoal wiped  straight off. And although the drawing still shows through, it works well.

Rose attempt two was painted without drawing, which through happy accident worked well and was pleased with the end result. 

It is cleaner and crisper than the first attempt with the linen canvas shining through. This style is more striking, especially using Prussian blue, one of my go-to colours.

The third attempt was to paint in an almost neutral underpainting with brights on top and muted tones for the final colours.

The final set added another three all with one colour painting with no drawing layer.
​Prussian blue still resonates for me. The end results favours the simplistic one-colour paintings which from a distance the linen looks like a soft white not dissimilar to unbleached titanium white.