Growing a pastel rose

Roses are my favourite flower and when I first started painting with pastels the subject I dearly wanted to master was roses.

Over the years I’ve painted many roses, I love the frailty of roses and the way the petals wrap around each other encasing the centre bud, they really are an amazing structure and formation of delicate texture. Pastels are beautiful for painting roses because you can capture the tiny ruffled edges of the petals and communicate the roundness of them and the transparency of light through the petals.

Here I’ve added a step by step process of painting one of my roses, this visual clue helps my students to see the structure and process of painting a rose, one petal at a time.

Why coming to an art class is so satisfying

Last week I had just one student come to class. It was one of those days when everyone else was busy, last minute stuff happened and they couldn’t make it.

And that is perfectly OK.

So Shalini got a one-on-one class all to herself. It also happened to be the day that everyone was to start a painting of their choice. Shalini had been to the art shop and got the paper and some new pastels and she had her reference picture all ready to go. I loved her enthusiasm! Here’s a summary of what she said:

After coming to classes for the last six weeks I finally feel ready to start my own painting. The first couple of classes really pushed me out of my comfort zone and I wasn’t that happy with what I did.

(I interjected here and said “had you ever done this before?” and Shalini said no. “So how can you be good or accomplished at something if you’ve never done it before?” Good question!)

Coming here every Friday means taking time out of my business and some weeks I’m crazy busy, but I’m committed to coming every week and learning something new and it’s so good for me. Starting my own painting today has been a lovely experience because I had to think about colours and composition and find something I want to paint. I really enjoyed the process and having all the classes before this one has prepared me for this. I’m so excited to be doing this and I feel very content to take it slowly and work on it each week. I love your art classes Jeanne, it’s precious time I give to myself, it’s meditative, peaceful and relaxing. Thank you!