White Flowers

Bush Roses

Watercolor 11 X 7.25

White flowers are always a fun challenge. You need to keep them white while still laying in interesting shadows. I loved this picture of the roses in the sunlight at Portland's Rose Garden. This painting has an abstract feeling to it with the roses floating cloud like in the picture, cropping it in a little would eliminate that some, but after doing some abstract work I kind of like that feeling. I did the painting by masking out the flowers and doing the dark background first. Personally, I think it's just as easy to paint the dark colors around the subject without using the mask and all the steps that takes.