Problems with Roses

In my experience it’s very rare for a painting just to “work” without many alterations and soul-searching as to what is wrong. Sometimes it pays to set the painting aside and come back to it some days later with a “fresh eye”, and sometimes looking at it in a mirror helps. It always takes a lot of stepping back away from the easel during the painting process to view it from a distance, and requires a good deal of problem solving. Sometimes other people can be helpful in this process, and there are times when I ask other artists for help. Here are some of the problems I had while painting roses recently:

Three Pink Roses

Above is the finished version, but this was how I started:

Having sketched out the composition on paper, I did an underpainting on the canvas with red for the pink roses and a neutral background, and added some darker greens to see how the composition felt. Happy with that, I continued:

This time I added more pigment and particularly more darks to add form. Again, I was quite happy until:

Adding opaque colour is always a dangerous part of the painting, and especially whites. I shouldn’t have added them at this stage, but I thought they would mix with the reds in the underpainting to form pinks. However, the underpainting had dried too much, and the whites didn’t mix well. You may ask why I persevered, but I didn’t really notice how bad it looked until I got to this point and stepped back from my easel. I should have stepped back sooner!

At this stage I could have given up and thrown out a failed painting but, instead, I scraped off the white paint and started my flowers again, adding a further layer of red and orange before adding white again to the wet paint.

You will see that I also altered the shape of the vase as I wasn’t happy with the upper portion, and I brought the greenery down lower.

Three Pink Roses

My next painting was of red and yellow roses. I decided on five flowers this time:

Red and Yellow Roses

This started out as a sketch on the canvas and an underpainting:

An almost completed painting showed me that the composition was not good:

I set it aside for a few days, and then when I returned to it I could see what was wrong – the flowers were in two lines. I changed the lower flowers slightly, and raised the centre top flower:

The flowers looked better, but something was still very wrong! Again I had to set it aside for a few days before I could see what it was: the greenery under the top rose. I had to darken it because the top rose would put it in shadow, and I decided it needed some defined leaves as well:

Red and Yellow Roses
Yellow Rose in Jar

This one started with an underpainting:

I used orange paint for the yellow rose and also for the foreground so that I could allow the orange to show through both, to bring harmony to the painting.

The next picture shows the painting almost complete, but I could see that the top greenery was not working at all:

Should I define the upper leaves? Was it because the lower leaves were defined and the upper leave weren’t? What was wrong? Finally I realised I needed another flower – I added one that was just opening and put in some more defined leaves as well. The jar also needed a shadow side, and I added a purple shadow on the table top.

Yellow Rose in Jar

One can always find problems with a painting, and see things one could have done better, but there comes a time when you have to decide it’s finished. Constantly tinkering with a painting can ruin it just as much as leaving an obvious problem, so the artist’s dilemma is always when to stop!

Goodbye 2020

I am writing this on New Year’s Day 2021. Although we are all glad to see the back of 2020, it was a good year for my painting. With amazing weather as well as being confined to home, I spent much of the spring gardening. This didn’t allow me much time for painting, but I was able to tend, grow, pick and photograph many beautiful flowers.

The spring was also a good time for selling paintings online all over the world as everyone went into lockdown and galleries were closed.

The summer was not quite so good weather-wise, so I picked up my paintbrush and started painting some of those flowers:

“Spring Bouquet” This one sold as soon as it went into the online gallery
“Hydrangeas, Cornflower and Fennel”

The birds were busy in the garden throughout spring and summer, and a joy to watch, photograph and paint.

“Catching the Worm”
“The King Surveys his Realm”

Birds have now become a favourite subject for me now, and I keep stretching myself with new techniques and use of colour.

“Flying Stork”
“Silent Hunter”
“Great Tit and Peanut”

I still have not achieved what I am striving for, but maybe that is what painting is all about.

December 2019

“Goose Lookout” Pastel SOLD
“Amorous Flamingos” 56cm x 46cm Oil £90

This last spring I got particularly interested in painting birds and used both my favourite mediums: pastel and oil.

Baby Sparrow Pastel
“Goose Head” Pastel 20cm x 29cm £75

During the late spring, summer and early autumn months I did very little painting as the garden took over all my time and creative abilities, and when I did try to paint nothing seemed to go well. I now have a stack of rubbish paintings that I may, one day, go back to, or I may paint over.

Recently I have returned to painting with more vigor, enthusiasm and the palette knife. I have really enjoyed using the palette knife, and have tried it out on landscape, florals and even birds.

“Sunset from Beacon Hill” 40cm x 30cm Oil £85
“Four Hydrangeas” 26cm x 30.5cm Oil £50

Using the palette knife has helped me to loosen up and try new ways of painting. Most recently I have been working on Autumn leaves, using a rag to spread the paint and a brush to spatter the paint.

I have been having a lot of fun and also selling quite a few paintings as Christmas approaches.

“Sunflower” 40cm x 40cm Oil £80
“Baby Swallows” 30.5cm x 25.5cm Oil £65
“Two Horses on Hay Bluff” Oil
“Tintern Abbey in the Mist”
“Autumn Walk”
“October Delight”

New Year New Paintings

2018 wasn’t a very productive year for me as far as painting goes. We moved house in the spring, which was very time consuming, and a great deal of the rest of the year was spent designing, preparing and planting a garden. This nourished my creativity so I did not feel the need to be painting too much.

Garden May 2018

Garden May 2018

Garden September 2018

Garden September 2018

 

 

 

 

 

The garden still needs to grow, but I am pleased with the design.

I have not produced many pastels recently as they need to be framed behind glass, and are therefore more trouble to frame, store and send in the post. These days I sell most of my work through Artfinder.com, which means mailing paintings to anywhere in the world.

However, “Wet Sand”, “Bunch of Grapes” and “Long Face” are three pastels that I am particularly pleased with.

“Wet Sand” is from a photograph taken by a friend when we were on holiday in Ireland together. I enjoyed playing with colours here and kept the painting quite loose.

Wet Sand

“Wet Sand”

“Bunch of Grapes” was very enjoyable to paint – I tried to keep some looseness in this one too.

“Bunch of Grapes”

“Long Face” is a portrait of a horse that came up to us when out walking one day. I love to do portraits, whether it be people or animals – I think it’s to do with capturing the expression and feeling of the subject

“Long Face”

I have been having fun recently experimenting with oils. I painted “French Village” when I returned from a holiday in the Dordogne where the old buildings are so attractive.

“French Village”

 

 

 

 

I was in the United States in November and, although I lived there for twelve years, I was once again astounded by the brightness of the fall colour, and tried to capture it in “Trees on Fire”.

“Trees on Fire”

“Who Do You Think You’re Looking At?” is a small 20 x 20cm painting – a bird portrait with a lovely fierce expression.

“Who Do You Think You’re Looking At?”

I have been enjoying using thicker paint, and “Birches” is a painting done almost entirely using palette knife. This was such fun to do, though I did find control issues with the fiddlier bits – however, this adds to the looseness.

“Birches”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most of my paintings, both pastels and oils, start with an underpainting – generally in much brighter colours than the finished product. I often like the underpaintings so much that I feel I should stop there, and so this is what I did with “Superiority!”

“Superiority!”

Maybe I like the underpaintings because I am more relaxed when doing them so I work in a looser fashion, or it could be that the brighter and outlandish colours that I use are attractive to the eye, or a combination of both.

Watch this space for more paintings like this!

 

Summer 2018

Oils have been my medium of choice again this summer, with an emphasis on florals and animals. Mostly I find them a real struggle, though there is the occasional one that seems to “paint itself”.

Deep in Thought

Deep in Thought

This painting of an orangutan, “Deep in Thought” was one of those struggles, more because of the drawing than the use of medium. Strangely the hand went very well, even though hands can often be very difficult to get right. The problem here, however, was the lower face that turned out not to be in line with the upper face – I did not realise this until I had repainted the mouth several times. The orangutan kept looking sad, which seemed like a mouth problem but, eventually, I realised it more to do with the positioning of the mouth than the mouth itself.

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Deep in Thought

Deep in Thought

 

 

 

 

“Robin Lookout” and “Hungry Blue Tit” also went through several alterations, particularly where background was concerned.

Robin Lookout

Robin Lookout

Hungry Blue Tit

Hungry Blue Tit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I often have to change the colour of a background, and the stages of this floral painting show  how the background colour changed drastically.

 

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Floral Fireworks

Floral Fireworks

 

 

The turquoise blue background here gives the flowers so much more power.

 

 

 

 

 

Most of my paintings go through several stages, with an underpainting being the first layer – this applies to both oils and pastels.IMG_0185 Resized

Blue Himalayan Poppies

Blue Himalayan Poppies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Stock and Peony

Stock and Peony

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rising Red Phoenix

Rising Red Phoenix

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Pink Roses

Pink Roses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst visiting New Jersey, I returned to Artspace Studio in Morristown and painted the two following pastels:

Wye Valley Bridge

Wye Valley Bridge

Still Harbour

Still Harbour

 

It was nice to paint in pastel again, though they are a nuisance to frame!

Spring 2017

For the last few months I have continued working in oils, mostly working on florals. I am very happy with the bright colours I can achieve, though sometimes the paint brush seems to run away with me – unlike pastel sticks that I find much easier to control.

A Trio of Daisies Oil painting 30cm x 42cm Unframed £70

A Trio of Daisies
Oil painting
30cm x 42cm

 

This painting has an acrylic underpainting in very bright colours that peep through in places. It also has patterns in a texture made from a thick layer of gesso. I used star-shaped pastry cutters to make some of the patterns.

Poinsettia Winter Joy Oil painting 46cm x 61cm Unframed £150

Poinsettia Winter Joy
Oil painting
46cm x 61cm

This is a large painting of the poinsettia I had over the Christmas period – this may well become next year’s Christmas card. I really enjoyed painting all those bright reds!

Lillies in a Jug Oil painting 41cm x 41cm Unframed £80

Lillies in a Jug
Oil painting
41cm x 41cm

I found these lillies quite a struggle with their many different petals turning in different directions.

King of His Realm

King of His Realm

 

I can’t stay away from animals for long and this stag was calling to me. It took me a long time to complete, and several times I had to put it to one side of the studio and let my brain slowly decide where I needed to go next. It has had a complete change of background, but I am quite happy with it now.

Water Hen, Bali

Water Hen, Bali

We went on holiday to Bali early in the year and, whilst there, visited an old friend in his home on the island. I was delighted by the water hens that lived at the bottom of his garden by a pond, and took several photos. This may not be the last water hen painting!

White Roses

White Roses

Since then there have been more florals, including these white roses.

Oil Paints take over in 2016

For the last 3 months I have been working solely in oils. Will I return to pastels? Yes, certainly, for I love working in pastel, but I do find the fact that they have to be framed behind glass rather a nuisance.

Pink and Yellow Petunias oil painting 15 x 30cm

Pink and Yellow Petunias
oil painting 15 x 30cm


Purple Iris Oil painting 20 x 25cm

Purple Iris
Oil painting 20 x 25cm


“Threesome”
Oil painting 36 x 36cm


I am enjoying using a paint brush, though I find fine detail harder with the brush than with a pastel stick. In some ways that is a good thing as it has allowed me to loosen up.
I have still been working mostly with florals, and have taken another Nancy Medina brilliant colour course. I have always loved working with bright colours, and flowers allow me to push the colour to extremes.

“Poppy Circle”
Oil painting 36 x 36cm


I continued working on the painting “Cow Pals” that was in my last blog, and this is the result.

“Cow Pals”
Oil painting 50 x 41cm


I recently applied to and was accepted as an artist by the online art gallery Artfinder.com. This has allowed me to put my work up for sale online – easily done from the comfort of my computer. As yet I have only sold one unframed pastel, but at least it is a venue that allows for unframed work to be put on sale. It is early days, and I hope for more sales in the future.

“Sisters at the Seaside”
Pastel painting


I still have work hanging in Green & Jenks in Monmouth, and recently sold a floral pastel painting there.

“Hollyhocks”
Pastel painting


I have also been making an effort to use more social media to promote my work, and now have a new Facebook page for my art. It is called “Marion Derrett Art”, and I would appreciate anyone, who hasn’t already done so, to like and follow this page. I have also started using Twitter and Instagram for promotion, so can be found on all these sites.
Pink and White Daisies Oil painting

Pink and White Daisies
Oil painting


“Daisy Power”
Oil painting 35 x 35cm

Pastels and Oils

In my last blog I mentioned a portrait commission. It was an interesting one, and different from the norm, as I was asked to paint a back. It was a very beautiful back, belonging to a very beautiful young women. It was to be her birthday present from her new husband – so romantic!

When he saw it completed, he was not entirely happy with it as I had painted purple curtains and, apparently, she does not like purple. We discussed what colour the curtains should be – a hard choice as I had chosen purple to tone with the purple that I had put into the shadows of her skin, and eventually decided on a dark red.

Later, when I changed the colour of the curtains, I found that it completely jarred with the skin tones, and even some of the background. What I had thought would be an easy fix, turned into quite a test. However, I redid it to both our satisfactions, and later heard that she was “wonderfully happy with it”. So nice to know my painting can give such pleasure!

Below are the two versions, though I’m not sure the camera has done justice to the colours. The one above is the first with purple curtains, and the one below is the final version.

Back Portrait 1

Back Portrait 1

Back Portrait 2

Back Portrait 2

Since completing the portrait, I have taken a course with Nancy Medina on flower painting in brilliant colours. I much admire Nancy’s work, and had been trying to paint florals in oil, but was unable to get that beautiful glow of clear colour that I could see in her work. I thoroughly enjoyed the course, and was able to produce florals that were much improved on anything I had done before.

Peonies

Peonies

White Hydrangeas

White Hydrangeas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pansies and Geraniums

Pansies and Geraniums

Since the course ended, I have been practising  putting my new skills in oils into practice and trying to find my own voice with the florals. I have even taken the brilliant colours into a painting of cows!

Cosmos Elegance

Cosmos Elegance

Cow Pals

Cow Pals

Recently, I was asked to give a pastel landscape demonstration to the Ledbury Art Society. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to both paint and talk at the same time, but it seems that I can! My intention was to show that a landscape doesn’t have to be all greens.

I enjoyed the morning tremendously, although I didn’t feel the painting was one of my best pieces of work. I may go back to it sometime, as it needs some refining, but I will have to take care not to “overdo” it.

 

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Larger Landscapes

Back in May I was asked to display paintings in a gallery above a gelato house/restaurant in Monmouth named Green & Jenks: www.greenandjenks.com. (By the way, they make their own wonderful ice cream on site, and serve the most delicious food.) At the time they were promoting a floral theme to celebrate Chelsea Flower Show and asked me, in the first instance, to hang some florals. I had a dozen ready to hang, but they were rather small for the space. The owner asked me to add to these, in the future, with some larger local landscapes, and I was pleased to have a project to complete.

I decided to work in oils as these might be quicker to complete than pastels and, most importantly, would not need to be framed behind glass – rendering them lighter in weight for transport. I also had quite a few 16″x 20″ canvasses, so this was the size I used. By the end of June I was ready to hang, and now have 21 paintings on display at Green & Jenks, 5 oils and 16 pastels, both florals and landscapes.

Here are the recent oil paintings, some of based on previous pastels:

Golden Light at Tintern

Golden Light at Tintern

Hillside Shadows

Hillside Shadows

Horses at Sunset

Horses at Sunset

Monmouth Gateway

 

Poetic Tintern

Poetic Tintern

Since completing these landscapes, I have been given a portrait commission. It is now complete, but I will wait to publish it since it will be a birthday gift in August.

 

 

 

 

Spring 2016

It is a long time since I last blogged, but that doesn’t mean that I have stopped painting! I have been trying out some new techniques with oil painting that I am not yet ready to share.

I did, however, paint these two farrier paintings, one in pastel and one in oil.

Farrier at Work 1 and 2

Farrier at Work 1 and 2

 

I posted them on Facebook and asked people to tell me which they like best – there were varied opinions, some preferred one and some the other. Let me know what you think, and why. Can you tell which is the pastel, and which the oil?

There have been a variety of florals that seem to be one of my favourite subject nowadays – it probably coincides with my other passion, my garden.

Happy Hellebore!

Happy Hellebore!

Pansies

Pansies

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rudbeckia

Rudbeckia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also love to paint animals, and was pleased with the looseness and movement I achieved with these white horses.

Two White Horses

Spring is such a wonderful time here in the Wye Valley in Wales that I can’t resist painting some of the landscapes around me, and the beautiful bluebells that flower in the woods just a short walk from our house.

Fishing the Wye

Fishing the Wye

Bluebell Woods

Bluebell Woods

 

Finally, also inspired by the locality, I painted one of the views of the inside of Tintern Abbey. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful piece of Gothic architecture on our doorstep!

Tintern Abbey Cloisters

Tintern Abbey Cloisters