"Rose Shadows" (watercolor; 6" x 6")

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Cast shadows on the rose petals, dark shadows on leaves, and deep violet shadows beneath! Don't you love all these beautiful shadows?

"Yellow Rose Bouquet" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 10")

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A swirling bouquet of yellow roses stirs up deep passion!

By the way, I tried a square cropping, but decided on the original design.  What's going on on the sides seems to add depth and mystery.  I guess that sometimes more is more!  Do you agree?

"Roses Roses Yellow Roses" (watercolor on paper; 7" x 10")

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Yellow roses in the sun warm my heart and lift my soul!

"Belle Yellow Roses" (oil on linen; 8" x 8")

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I got pinks out of my system, so yesterday, I painted yellow roses from the same garden in New Bedford, MA. 

"Sunny Roses" (oil on linen; 6" x 8") sold

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Reference photo

These are the same roses as in "Yellow Roses" from a slightly different angle.  Much can be said for painting the same thing over and over again.  One gains a deeper understanding of the subject through the repetition with variation.  Here I was trying to get to the bottom of how to paint natural-looking leaves.  Perhaps, the only drawback in working in a series is coming up with an exciting  title each time!

"Yellow Roses" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

sold

Reference photo

I haven't been painting much lately, partly thanks to my daughter.  She just started high school, marches in the marching band, joined her school's golf team, etc.  I figured that this was the last chance to get involved in her school activities and decided to volunteer as much as I could, which is a good thing, but also time-consuming and tiring. 

Whenever I tried to paint, I found myself tightening up.  The summer-long project of working on old paintings, I fear, made me lazy.  Well, fixing an old painting is not as hard or nerve-wrecking as starting a painting from scratch, you see.  It's not as exciting either.  I kind of lost my mojo in the process.

I mean to rectify the situation, get back into my form, and start painting like a maniac again.  "Yellow Roses" is from a photo I took of my neighbor's roses last April.  I could have worked at it for two more hours to make it "perfect".  My goal was, however, to loosen up, to get excited about painting again.