I’m thoroughly enjoying painting these roses, especially now that I’ve finally reached the top layer, where they are more specific and detailed and at last I can really see how the left corner is going to look when it’s complete. This layer is painted in a light blue-grey, mixing Ceramic White with Payne’s Grey, in much the same way that I did the first layer of the acacia tree leaves up in the top right. Once they’re complete (I want to continue putting them across the bottom half of the canvas) they’ll be ready for a glaze of yellow and green to make these ghostly shapes look more like living rose branches.
I love the roses in my garden and I like the idea of these painted wild roses bringing pleasure to people. But perhaps I should discretely paint some mildew and rust on the leaves, and some aphids being eaten by ladybirds, to remind us that even in the most beautiful wonders of the natural world we can find the cycle of birth and death. This fits nicely with the theme of the four paintings of which this is one – this piece is the journey of life, followed by the angel of death, followed by the in between state after life and prior to birth, then finally the cycle is completed by the angel of birth. (Incidentally, I don’t view any one of the four paintings as the beginning or end of the cycle, the four together make a unity.)
