Painting Spring Flowers, how I do it,

Spring Roses oil painting

People who know me say that I only paint flowers when it is raining outside, and mostly they are correct.

Daffodils in a jug still life painting
White Roses oil painting

Painting spring flowers, Here are some daffodils for you in an antique blue and white jug, sitting on some turquoise silk cloth. Also I’ve painted some white roses in a glass jar.

Flowers have incredibly complex shapes to the blooms and delicacy in the petals, which are always challenging to depict in oil paints. I have found the key is to not try to get every minute detail of every bloom, but to concentrate on one bloom in detail and then to hint at the details in the others. The play of light and shadow is also vital to ‘bring them to life’.

Here is a photo, taken in the studio with some mixed Roses, this time in a cut glass vase, and my painting, is nearly finished, secured in my pochard box, the same one I use outside for ‘plein air’ painting.

I’ll leave you with these delightful yellow roses in a glass jug. All these flowers were painted this winter in my own studio, or a friend’s studio, nearby. CLICK the YELLOW ROSES to see more still life paintings.