White Roses with only one day left! by Mark H Brown

Today I finally was brave enough to conquer the leaves. I must confess I have been painting around them the whole time wondering how I would make them look alive, hang just right and feel real. After a rough start, the kind that makes you want to cry and have a studio meltdown, I persevered and broke through to success.

I cut several branches from the Rose bush in the yard, put them in jars and moved them around the still life table. This allowed me to have them next to the vase of flowers, keep the light consistent with the original setup and piece the cut leaves in here and there throughout the painting. I would turn the jars, move the leaves around and bend them to the shapes I wanted.

It was a long day, but I knew that I needed to finish them all in one day to keep the unity of color and idea I had in mind. I knew I wouldn't sleep until they were done anyway.

Tomorrow I will finish the background layer, scumble the lights and hopefully scumble some color and light into the fabric. I think it is almost done!