Author: Michele Clamp

Great excitement for a Paul Foxton rose workshop this week. It’s been a while since I’ve had the oils out and I was raring to go. They don’t feel quite as unwieldy as they used to and this was a great session.

Week 1 – Rose Value Study

This week was working in neutrals to produce a value study. Very careful observation and then checking by measurement of all the relevant values. I’ll probably do a little more to this one although probably not too much.

First we just blocked in all the values paying little attention to edges

After the whole panel was covered we softened all the edges with a soft brush. We then went back in with paint and sharpened up some areas to bring contrast and definition.

Side by side with the reference.

Week 2 of Paul Foxton Rose Workshop

This week was putting in some color. A lot of careful mixing and modelling of the form in that left hand rose. These David Austin roses really do have that intense orange in the middle. It was almost too intense in chroma to reach in paint.

Howeve,r this was a blast to do. Look at those colors! This is the first pass so there’ll be some tweaking of detail in the left hand rose later but probably not a lot.

Week3 – Full Color Study of Peach and White Roses

Paul Foxton’s workshop today and we started a color study for a larger finished painting. Almost 4 hours for this – it was intense. We’d had some practice with the colors last week so it wasn’t so bad but even so there was a lot to think about and you couldn’t let your focus drop.

An intermediate and palette shot

Rose Color Study Finished

The color study is done and I’m happy with it. It’s not a painting – just blocks of color but it seems to hang together well. This is 8″x10″ and I’m planning maybe going up to 16″x20″ for the final thing. Unless I chicken out of course.

Here’s the state of the palette. I try and keep it tidy with so many colors on the go but it gets confusing.

Working up the Color Study

Inspired by Marilyn on the Summer Roses group I decided to work up the color study a little. This gives me a little practice in readiness for the bigger version on Monday. Although softening the edges was tricky I think I’m fully prepared to dive into the real thing.

Final Rose Oil Painting – Block In Session

It’s a long haul this oil painting lark. Today was a 4 hour block in session. I’m working larger today on a 16″x20″ panel which was a lesson in itself. More paint, bigger brushes, and trying to keep the shapes interesting at a bigger scale.

Paul Foxton Rose Workshop – Drawing Out

All the main colors were pre-mixed as we’d already done a color study.

The main rose colors went in along with some of the dark greens to check values.

Starting the block-in with light and shadow colors

More colors on the background flowers.

The final block in with all hard edges

Final Block-In with Softened Edges

And the final block in with all edges softened. Next will be refining the drawing, sharpening up some edges and putting in detail. Phew!

Paul Foxton Rose Workshop – Session 5

It’s session 5 already! And we’re now onto putting some detail into the roses. We worked on the two main roses and it is extremely tricky. I think I’m happy right now but I’ll take another look tomorrow. I just about kept the form without losing value in the shadows or gaining it in the lights. And the inside curled petals just about came together.

Here’s where I started – all smooshed edges

We first worked on the big left hand rose. Sharpening up some edges and leaving others loosely defined

Then the right hand rose which was trickier but just about kept together.

And a detail of the two almost finished roses

Paul Foxton Rose Worksthop – Final Session

The final (ish) session on the summer roses with Paul Foxton. Hard to say how I feel about this right now. There are a few things I’d like to work on still but it’s very close to being done. Highly recommend Paul’s workshops. I learn a lot, the people are great and it’s enormous fun.