Stop and Smell the Roses Festival

Today was the ‘Stop and Smell the Roses’ rose festival at the Park of Roses. Our plein air group was invited to paint during the event and compete for prizes. The weather was perfect and there was a very big crowd.

I found a view I really liked that showed dappled sunshine on the path behind some pink Camelot roses.

A nice couple admiring my painting.

Camelot Roses, oil, 8 x 10, Arches Oil paper mounted on board

I attempted to paint very loosely and try not to fiddle with it much. Once I got it home, I felt it looked a bit messy up close. But I’ll leave it as is. I tend to go too far and really mess things up and forced myself to stop.

It was getting pretty hot, and I decided to get out of the sun for the second painting and moved over to a bench in the shade.

I liked the red tri-colored beech tree in the distance (behind the blue umbrella) with the same Camelot roses in the front. Yes, the visitors blocked my view, but I am used to this by now.

I got my easel set up and in the picture below, you can see the composition I have outlined in red.

Instead of doing a regular thumbnail, today I used the Notan style of sketching to decide on a composition. You can see the small piece of paper on the left side of both paintings.

Beech Tree with Roses, 6x6, oil on canvas board

I was pretty beat, so I packed up my stuff and took a stroll around to see my fellow painters. There was about 30 painters today, which is at least double the amount of our normal Saturday painters. Must have been the chance for awards that brought out the larger group. I only took a few pics and headed home.