20130907 - Rose

It's classic: "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" .. Shakespeare realized the essence of a thing is not its name. It is the characteristics of the thing that define it. This is true of roses. It is true of people.

This is particularly true of how the world often views "christians". Why is that? Well, for those who follow Christ, it's important to sometimes hold up a mirror and really look at ourselves. Do we endorse folks like Westboro Baptist Church? They claim to be "Christian". Yet, they spout hate speech whenever they get the chance. Is that the message of Christ? Is it fair to then say "All Christians are fanatics"?

Is our society any different when we turn and claim all Muslims clearly are violent and preach violence? Are we not lumping all adherents of Islam into the same boat as the extremists? Are we doing anything different than when someone claims "All Christians are fanatics"?

Ah, well. See what happens when I contemplate a rose for a day. Interestingly, I find that on my journey to develop my skill with watercolor, I find time to contemplate the world around me. It's a chance to learn some perspective .. in many different ways.

Back to a Rose .. This rose is based on a rose that I found at the JC Raulston Arboretum. The color is a wonderful cream / coral color with a blush of rose pink toward the edges and a light orange color inside the blossom. Getting that transition of colors is very hard to accomplish .. at least for me at my level.

But I learned a trick yesterday in class that I wanted to apply. It involves wetting the area to paint with plain water. Then painting the base color (unless you are leaving a little bit unpainted to have some white show). Then you drop a touch of color in the area you want to blend together. It takes practice. As you can see (just barely) from the detail in some areas of the rose (top left highlighted area) the blending went just right. But if you have too much water then you get some distinct water marks when the water evaporates. It looks for all the world like a "high tide" mark on the painting.

Ah well, it's a process of learning the techniques to accurately portray what I see. The important thing for me is that I enjoy learning and trying. Hopefully you also find the process enlightening.