Rose Sweet Rose- A Different Approach

Roses Sweet Rose
16 x 16 Oil on Panel
NFS

One trait common to most artists is the continual quest to keep learning and growing.  I've been painting for over 20 years, but am always on the lookout for new approaches, methods, tools, inspiration to grow as an artist.

 In that spirit, I participated in a 3 day workshop given by artist Brian Davis last week. I've been familiar with Brian's work since he is known for his floral paintings.  While our subject choices may be similar, our approach to the  painting process is quite different.  I typically paint in a more impressionistic style with a direct alla prima approach, while Brian  is much more photorealistic and uses a grisalle underpainting, then lets that dry and adds color in layers as needed to refine the painting. I thought it might be a good idea to stretch way out of my comfort zone to try a radically different approach, knowing that even if I didn't pursue that approach wholeheartedly in the future, I was sure I'd learn something of value and hopefully have some fun along the way. ( If you are a beginning painter, you may want to wait till you feel confident in one approach before trying lots of different approaches, sometimes jumping from workshop to workshop can be confusing as you are just starting to learn. But for more experienced artists who feel grounded in their process, it might be refreshing to get "out of the box" once in awhile)

To speed up the process during the 3 day workshop, we used Alkyd oil paints, which dry faster than traditional oils. this already was new as I had never worked with the Aklyds before. They dry slower than acrylics, but faster( usually overnight) than oils.

 Here I am with Brian and his partially completed demo painting.

Day one we created a grisalle by adding white and black aklyds for light and dark shapes on a panel painted with a midtone grey acrylic underpainting.

 Day 2 , after the initial layer was dry we further developed the grisalle.

Day 3, we finally moved on to color.

Side by side with the photo we were using for reference during the workshop

Further development once I got home on Sunday and the final painting above  "Rose Sweet Rose" was completed on Monday.