Pink Rose

10x8", water mixable oil on panel

Alright, time to give the yellow a rest. We've had these beautiful sun-bleached pink roses in bloom by our fence and they're just about to wilt into nothing, so I thought I would try painting one before it's too late. It seems like the values are just a little too segmented. Looking at other rose paintings I like, the lights are more or less connected, forming more of a solid value area with subtle variations within them (strangely enough, I kind of like the value structure my 30-second reductive drawing more than the finished product--the simplicity is nice).

I think I'll probably go back to a drawing copy or something next. There's this teaching concept we use in speech pathology when working with dementia patients called errorless learning. Basically you teach people something on a level at which they can succeed every time, then increase complexity slowly, only as fast as they continue being successful. A little errorless learning might be nice about now. All this stretching and pulling and failing and dusting myself off is a little exhausting. I think I'll try something with a clearly delineated path for a day or two while I recharge my batteries. Painting is just so hard.