The cooler Autumn weather is the blooming time for these beautiful types of Roses known as "Cornelia" Roses or Hybrid Musk roses. Their pink musk colour ranges from a vivid pink with yellow centre shading, turning to a light musk pastel pink/ almost white colour as the flower ages. These roses are thornless with bronze green foliage.
My painting of the Cornelia Rose (left) was done a few years ago and was copied from a gardening magazine photo. I was attracted to the pastel colours of the petals, as I had not worked much with a pastel colour scheme, and wanted to see how I could paint the lighter/ almost white coloured flowers using a more muted colour scheme than I normally use. The dark green background helps to bring out the musky pastel pink tones, and I found that I needed to actually incorporate a rainbow of colours into the scheme to highlight the muted pastel tones. I wasn't sure about the outcome at first, as it was a slight departure in style for me at the time, but it sold reasonably quickly and looking at it now, I can see how it captures the musky pastel tones of the original roses. On the right is a painting of a pink rose macro style by Georgia O'Keeffe. It's not a Cornelia Rose, but I like the modernist way she abstracts the flower form by painting in the macro style. I always try to incorporate this style and approach with my large rose paintings.
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As the cool Autumn weather hits Sydney, a large and visually striking flowering plant begins to bloom. Protea is the common name of a genus of South African flowering plant - named after the Greek God Proteus who could change his form at will, as Proteas have such a variety of forms.
The Proteaceae family to which Protea belong is an ancient one dating back to Gondwana land 80 million years ago. Sub families of the Protea are found in Australia and South America and other small segments of Gondwana in Africa and East Asia. I painted the Protea a couple of years ago now (above left), as I wanted to paint a few styles of Australian flowers for a change - though I didn't realise at the time that the Protea is not really a native Australian flower, but can be commonly found here. I found the large red / orange colourful flower very satisfying to paint. The original sold fairly quickly, proving that it is a very popular flower. I've also sold quite a few magnets and other gift items with this painting, so it is quite a popular motif. Margaret Preston's woodcut print Proteas are very famous (above right) and her style is always influential when trying to paint Australian themed native plants. |
AuthorSacha Grossel is a practising Visual Artist from Australia. Archive
February 2019
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